My Amazon Reviews: Semi Precious Weapons "Aviation"

This band used to be dangerous
3 Out Of 5 Stars

In reviewing the first two albums by Semi-Precious Weapons, "We Love You" and "You Love You," I made a comment along of the lines that this was a band that could scare church ladies. With a flamboyantly glam approach and lead weapon Justin Tranter, SPW dropped guitar firecrackers of gleefully tasteless rock that seemingly came from a collision with AC/DC and T.Rex. There was little else out there that sounded remotely like it, and I was hooked.

The SPW band that made those two albums is virtually unrecognizable from the one that delivered "Aviation." Instead of having producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T.Rex) man the boards, this time they have producer "Tricky," whose best known client is Beyonce. They've gone from "Rebel Rebel" to "Single Ladies." They've gone from opening for Lady Gaga's concerts to actively courting Gaga's consumers. Bye bye, crunchalicious guitar chords, hello throbbing synths and drum machines. It's not a pretty transition.

There are a few songs that keep the winking wit of before in place, like "Cherries On Ice" and "Vegas," where Tranter wails "it's time to go to Vegas...and forget about you." In fact, if it weren't for Tranter's charisma, "Aviation" would just be another run of the mill synth-heavy pop album. They aren't dangerous anymore. They want your attention, and they were willing to go to that fork in the road that asked them if they'd try a third album of the music that wasn't getting anywhere commercially and see if the third time was the charm, or take that fork towards a more mainstream sound. If it's really the record they wanted to make, great (After all, I still bought it). But nothing here comes close to the fury of "Magnetic Baby" or "Leave Your Pretty to Me's" pleas for acceptance. Blandness was the last thing I expected from this bunch and "Aviation" just that. Bland.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Lou Reed "Transformer"

You hit me with a flower
5 Out Of 5 Stars

David Bowie and Mick Ronson must have really been fans of The Velvet Underground, because when Lou Reed's fledgling solo career needed a dynamite second album, the two of them stepped in and offered to produce. The glam-bomb that is "Transformer" became a bona-fide hit and delivered what is arguably the weirdest top 40 single of the 70's, "Walk On The Wild Side." Bowie and Ronson tarted up Reed with glammy arrangements that also flirt with cabaret while leaning heavily on atmospherics, which resulted in an enduring classic and one of the few times Reed made a conscious effort at recording a commercial album (albeit one that deals with drag queens, dealers, drug users and plenty of other denizens of NYC's darker regions).

"Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"

You didn't hear much anything else like it on the AM radio, and nothing much like it since. Bowie and Ronson kept the production clean and "Walk On The Wild Side" had a slithering bassline that carried most of the song, topped by Reed's deadpan delivery. When he tries to really sing ("Goodnight Ladies"), it comes close to the Berlin trappings that he'd explore on his next album. Still, the songs are often smarter than a surface listen would give away, like the lovely "Perfect Day." It sounds like another nice day in the city until you understand that it's about wandering Central Park while higher than a kite.

That was Reed's greatest strength on "Transformer," that he could so easily couch lyrics that almost anyone else would run and hide from before committing them to an album. The flirtatious mixing around with sexual identity ("Make Up," "Walk") was probably just as much Bowie's Ziggy personae giving Reed a bit of a goosing, but it holds up really well. You also can't discount Ronson's contributions, as it's his fuzz-buzz guitar that drives "Vicious" for one instance.

The songs themselves have endured, too. "Satellite of Love" (complete with Bowie singing back-up) remains one of Reed's best, and stands as strong as "Walk On The Wild Side" and "Perfect Day." "Transformer" marked the launching pad commercially for Lou Reed, is as flawless a record as the 70's had to offer, and possibly the best outside album work Bowie has been involved in.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Lou Reed "Essentials"

Lou Reed. March 2, 1942 - October 27, 2013
5 Out Of 5 Stars

There aren't too many figures in America Rock and Roll that have a footprint quite like Lou Reed's. From his start as part of Andy Warhol's factory band to his later status as a sort of NYC Poet Laureate, to even recording and album in cahoots with Metallica (not represented here, though), he is one of the USA's predominant rock icons. Or as he put it on one of his live albums, a Rock and Roll Animal. This "Essentials" set is a repackaging of "NYC Man," but still a great set if you don't already own that older package.

The tracklist is a varied set and covers most of his time with various incarnations and major labels (RCA, Arista and Warners). There are excellent liner notes courtesy of Lou himslef, describing the thought processes behind the songs. The sequencing is a bit odd, as the first song here is from "The Raven" (his adaptations of Edgar Alan Poe) and then ends on disc two with "Transformer's" "Pale Blue Eyes." Reed describes his concept for the sequencing as "the point of view which songs relate to each other in the best fashion." Because of the really sweet remastering job (mostly from 2003), many of the songs, even from the Velvets, slip into the others sounding as contemporary as ever. There's the basic rock of "Dirty Boulevard" to the atmospheric guitar the grinds through "Rocket Minuet," which Reed viewed as worthy of following each other. (Minuet" also featured his wife, performance artist Laurie Anderson, on violin.) He could make any sound he wanted, and he did, without compromise.

I have my own personal favorites here, especially from the albums "Magic and Loss" and "New York," which in my opinion, were brilliant even if it took a few years for an audience to catch up to them. And while the Arista albums tended to get slagged, selections from the likes of "The Blue Mask" and "Legendary Hearts" are here and deserve a re-listen. Of course, there are the magical songs from "Transformer," including "Perfect Day." As a compilation, it's a great starter kit, although I'd recommend any of the albums mentioned here (and "The Velvet Underground and Nico") as perfect albums in their own right. "The Essential Lou Reed" is a terrific overview of one of Rock's greatest cantankerous characters, and the world is a slightly less interesting place because of his passing.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Various Artists "CBGB Original Soundtrack"

The Spirits of the '70's
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Offering conclusive proof that the 70's were more than disco balls and The Captain & Tenille, this punky soundtrack to the movie "CBGB" mixes in classic New York punk and new wave, along with some classic proto-punk and the late owner of the club, Hilly Kristal, singing a country inflected ditty called "Birds and The Bees." It's enough to make you sappy for the old, ugly pre-Disneyfied Times Square.

The mix is pretty cool, as well. While you get some of the more obvious (IE famous) bands to break out from the CBGB stage (Blondie, Talking Heads), you also are offered some of the better bands that got brought into the big label league, only to fall victim to an audience (and more often than not, record labels) that just didn't get it. Those bands include delights from The Dictators, Laughing Dogs, Tuff Darts and others. Then there's the notorious of the bunch, like Wayne (eventually Jayne) County and Johnny Thunders. There's also quite a few others that fell somewhere in the middle, building a well known reputation but never equaling the talk with the sales (New York Dolls, Television, Dead Boys).

If it seems to you that the bands I'm pointing out are all pretty darn different from each other (Dead Boys' nihilistic punk is not the same as Blondie's power pop is not the same as Television's arty guitar compositions), then you're right. The tiny stage of CBGB's was a place that hatched all sorts of Bowery Bands, and while the DIY ethic was often the same, the bands could often be miles apart. So having the likes of the MC5 ("Kick Out The Jams"), Iggy and The Stooges ("I Wanna Be Your Dog") and The Velvet Underground ("I Can't Stand It") along for the ride shows that the roots of the NYC Scene came from just as many sources as the sounds the new bands were making on their own.

There are a few nods to the aftermath of the time, including Joey Ramone's posthumous "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" from 2002 as something of a footnote to the period. The neighborhood that fostered musicians and junkies is now gentrified and the original club closed. Kristal died in 2007, a year after the bar closed over a rent dispute. At one point, some jokers in Las Vegas wanted to open a club that carried the namesake amid all the rest of the phony glitter. There's real gentrification for you. But as Richard Hell sings, "I was saying let me outta here before I was even born!" which about sums up the heart of this whole soundtrack. While the trendier of the 70's NYC luminaries were headed for Studio 54, a whole batch of young ne'er-do-wells were smashing their way out in the opposite direction, preserved here on the "CBGB" Soundtrack.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Strokes "Comedown Machine"

Comedown, Come Up
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The Strokes' "Comedown Machine" sounds like it just dropped down from the mid-80's. There's plenty of skritchy guitar work and an overabundance of synthesizers, with Julian Casablacas both singing in a falsetto and in his usual distorted style. You may think I exaggerate, but the first time I heard "One Way Trigger," I was prepared for the band to break into a cover of A-ha's "Take On Me." Yes, it's that derivative.

At the same time, it's absolutely The Strokes. It may be hard to believe, but this album is arriving 10 years after the mucho hyped debut of "Is This It," so anyone expecting The Strokes not to mature a bit probably needs to do a little growing up themselves. The band themselves acknowledge this on "All The Time" as the plead "You're livin' too fast," and as they explore dance rhythms on "Welcome To Japan," which is something the older, more hyper-active Strokes would have not bothered with in their younger days.

"Comedown Machine" is sometimes a bit too much of a vacuum production-wise, as, like "Angles," the sound is often cleaner and slicker than a whistle. That doesn't stop The Strokes from indulging in a bit of experimentation, like the title track or the ghostly falsetto on "Call It Fate Call It Karma." (Somebody's been listening to their old Iron and Wine albums...) "Comedown Machine" is a fun album from a band that has gotten old enough to have lost that early exuberance, but not too old to settle for a conformist view of album making.

     

The Rainbow Book Fair

This past Saturday, I overslept. This was not a good thing, as the rainbow Book Fair I've been telling everyone to come to was better than two hours away and I had two and a half hours to get there. I bolted from bed and ate a hasty breakfast, then hit the highway. I was smart enough to have loaded the books into the car trunk the night before. I still made it to the event in time, including picking up my friend and fellow author David Stein. A friend snapped this picture of the two of us.

Despite the minutes to midnight sort of arrival, we were set up well before patrons began arriving. In another break of luck, the table next to ours was a no-show, so I used it to spread more books out. Thanks to the Square device that turns a smartphone into a cash register, I did a brisk business, mostly on my new book. I was pleased. I got to see some old friends, and Thor stopped in for a visit, bearing bagels.

Now if you are wondering why I am wearing those groovy hippie glasses indoors, it was I forgot to change from driving with my sunglasses to my regular spectacles. Which was a mistake, as I left them on the passenger car seat. Which means that David, unwittingly, sat on them. Oh Snap was exactly what it meant in the literal sense. Driving home was a real trial, as I had to balance the frame on half of my head while adjusting the nose piece about every 5 to 10 miles. But I made it home safely, and my new book is already getting some very positive feedback. (Always good for the insecure author's ego.)

In less than two weeks I'll be headed for Cleveland's CLAW event, where I'll be moderating "Dirty Words: The Erotic Author's Forum." Everyone gets to do a reading, which is always fun, and the audience tends to be very responsive during Q&A time. With the new book to lead the vendor table, I am also hoping to do well sales-wise again.

I'm so pleased to have the new book out that I've started working on another. I've finally started the Amish Zombie novel I've been batting around in my head for a few years now. "Mennonite Of The Living Dead" is the working title (groan all you want to, but now you won't forget it, will you?).

If you're in New York City on Saturday...

Stop by and visit me at



I'll be promoting my new book...which is also now available for Kindle!

  

My Amazon Reviews: Joey Ramone "Ya Know?"

Ya, we know
3 Out Of 5 Stars

The second and (from the sounds of reports) final solo from Joey Ramone is a solid and unlikely tribute to the late singer. From the liner notes, it also sounds like this was a tough record to release, with barbs at producer Daniel Rey for an "eight year long tug of war" over Joey's vocal tapes. Was the battle worth it? For us fans, heck yeah.

"Ya Know" sounds like a half-ways decent Ramones album from the period after "Too Tough To Die" that began seeing them struggling with weaker material. Indeed, some of these songs might have spruced up the likes of "Animal Boy" or "Brain Drain," as references seem to point to various gestation years. The most blatant is the Elton John cop in "Rock and Roll is The Answer," the worst is the country weeper redo of "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)." Given that these were all stapled together from home demos, the friends in attendance (Andy Shernoff of the Dictators, Jean Beauvoir of the Plasmatics, Joan Jett, Holly Vincent of Holly and The Italians and more), this sounds like a coherent, full album. Vincent's duet on the Phil Specter-like "Party Line" is a super standout, and "New York City," which has an all-star cast behind Joey, is a love letter to NYC that rocks like the best of any Ramones platter.

Some of the songs retain their demo quality, with La la's and Ba-ba's sounding like open spaces for unfinished lyrics ("Make Me Tremble") and the closer, "Life's a Gas" is only really half a song. At the same time, when you hear the wind shimes that fade the song out and know that these were things in Joey's life that brought him peace, it's hard not to forgive the album's final handlers for giving us, as fans, everything that was left in the vaults. Almost as good as "Don't Worry About Me" and missing by a cover version (Joey's kicking version of "Wonderful World" on DWAM), "Ya Know" is everything a Ramones fan could expect. A rambling staggering piece of purity. Just like the guy himself.

     

New York City Book Boys. Never Have a Dull Day

Saturday AM, I hopped bright and early into my car with three boxes of books for the annual Rainbow Book Fair, which Daniel Kitchens has been doing a great job of running these past few years. It's always an enjoyable outing, and - like last year - David Stein and I split costs on a table. As lucj would have it, the vendor next to us failed to show, so we expanded our space.

Perfect Bound Press is David's company, I list mine as Black Leather Bookshelf. There were an awful lot of folks there this year, including this year's "get," Samuel R Delaney, Sci-Fi and kinky writer. (You think I'm kidding? Read "Hogg" someday.) he has a new novel about Rural Gay America out, which I picked up and had autographed.

Another author friend was there, Christopher Trevor.

As per usual, lots of friends arrived to say hello and pick up some books. My buddy Colonel Al propped in to show off his workout improved figure. 

All in all, a good day. I think that David and I sold enough to have made some profits, but I was ready to head for home. I'm psyched to catch the premier of "MadMen" later this week (it's on the DVR waiting for me).

Have a Great week, all.