Barack Obama is Not Pleased

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While I await the American president's sitting down with some less-friendly, more relentless journalists, this interview with ally Chris Hughes over at The New Republic is still a crucial read in order understand Obama's current mind-set.

And I want to be very clear here that Democrats, we've got a lot of warts, and some of the bad habits here in Washington when it comes to lobbyists and money and access really goes to the political system generally. It's not unique to one party. But when it comes to certain positions on issues, when it comes to trying to do what's best for the country, when it comes to really trying to make decisions based on fact as opposed to ideology, when it comes to being willing to compromise, the Democrats, not just here in this White House, but I would say in Congress also, have shown themselves consistently to be willing to do tough things even when it's not convenient, because it's the right thing to do. And we haven't seen that same kind of attitude on the other side.

 Who would you like to see interview Barrack Obama?

The Boomtown Rats: The Dudgeon Sessions (1979)

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Holy Hell have I got a treat for you on this day, the day that Bob Geldof has announced that he will re-join his fellow Boomtown Rats on the road. These three songs are from  a session done with legendary producer Gus Dudgeon (a name worthy of Charles Dickens!) in 1979. Here you get an early, completely different  version of "I Don't Like Monday" done in a nervous-punky-reggae style and lacking Johnnie Fingers' famous piano part. While this version would likely have never been the massive hit the later version was, this stripped down studio take is an amazing thing in and of itself. As well, you get another rocking version of early B-side "Late Last Night" as well as a shorter, edgier, less Springsteen-y version of "Joey's on the Street Again". Awesome!





1. I Don't Like Mondays
2. Joey's On The Street Again
3. Late Last Night

So what do you make of this unheard Boomtown Rats material? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!


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Wreckless Eric: Le Beat Group Electrique (1989)

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Wreckless Eric (more HERE) has stuck to his guns. Those guns, his chugga-chugga guitar and his garbled vocals, are like old flintlock muskets: crude, noisy and deadly at close range.

Following the premature death of the Len Bright Trio, Wreckless Eric, by then dry and living in rural France, put out Le Beat Group Electrique with Catfish Truton (drums) and André Barreau (bass) in 1989. LBGE were almost as grimy and roughshod musically as the LBT but with less noise-for-noise’s-sake and more sharp song-writing. Eric sounds like a ramshackle Buddy Holly on tunes like "Tell Me I'm the Only One", while "Sarah" is Dylan-esque put-down that sounds somewhere between the early Beatles (hopped-up in Hamburg era) and Van Morrison (circa early Them). At one point, he channels Lou Reed on “Just For You” but not until putting a Wreckelss pop spin on mental illness, with the ironically chipper-sounding "Depression".

 

Listen to this whole album, all 32:17 of it, and you'll be struck by how fearless Eric is; how he remains unbowed and well-armed!


Tracklist

A1     Tell Me I'm The Only One 3:10   
A2     Wishing My Life Away      4:02   
A3     Depression     2:56   
A4     It's A Sick Sick World     1:39   
A5     Just For You     4:45   
A6     Sarah     3:17   
B1     The Sun Is Pouring Down 5:00   
B2     I'm Not Going To Cry     2:08   
B3     You Sweet Big Thing     3:50   
B4     Fuck By Fuck     1:16   
B5     Parallel Beds     4:05   
B6     True Happiness     5:00




Hope you  enjoyed the re-up and feel free to leave us a COMMENT! about Mr. Eric and LBGE!


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Wreckless Eric's Hitsville House Band (1994)

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By 1994, Wreckelss Eric (more HERE) had created another short-lived ensemble, oddly named, the Hitsville House Band. There's no drastic change in the Wreckless one's sound on the group's lone album, 12:00 Stereo, other than Eric's delving deeper into American country music. Like his first producer, Nick Lowe, Eric's work has always been inflected with steely melodies and emotional nakedness of country song-writing. "Guitar-Shaped Swimming Pool" (with its tip of the Stetson to Webb Pierce) and "Friend's on the Floor" (which squashes most Nashville song-writing beneath it's heel) represent the gut-bucket country aspect of the album. While raw, primal rock n' country courses through the album's grooves, Eric hasn't stopped writing pop songs like, "The Girl With the Wandering Eye", a devastatingly melodic post-mortem on love lost.


 




The Hitsville House Band were, according, to the liner notes:

DENIS BAUDRILLART -- drumset and maracas
ERIC GOULDEN -- succession of crapped-out guitars and organs, vocal
FABRICE LOMBARDO -- double bass, bass guitar, Javanese toe flute
André Barreau -- extra guitars, harmony vocals
Michael Lembach -- trumpet
Christoph Linder -- tenor & baritone saxes





MRML Readers,whaddaya think of this particular phase in Eric's ever-shifting muddle!!


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If any readers have a copy of the HHB's sole single, see below, please let me know!!

Cleveland's Screaming 1981 - 1983 Documentary about the Cleveland H/C Scene

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Clevland's Screaming, a lo-fi, low-light documentary on one local hardcore scene, is the kind of labour-of-love/by-product-of-hate that dozens of North American cities could have produced. Filmmaker/author and zen-punk Brad Warner documents the trials and tribulations of far-from-famous bands like Zero Defects, Starvation Army, Urban Mutants, Offbeats as well as numerous scenesters with great humanity. It's an arresting mix of new interviews and rough archival footage that rips along like the genre it documents.





Thanks to David McLean for pointing out this rough cut of the film!

Paul Weller: Into Tomorrow (Full Documentary)

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As a North American it can be weird to review the career of Paul Weller. Not only did The Jam, The Style Council and his solo career never break big, even his cult following here never had the sheer obsessiveness of say, a Morrisey or a Robert Smith. While I see Weller is one of the greatest English song-writers of all time (heady company, indeed), I've always felt part of a fairly soft-spoken minority. Now back home in England Weller is revered as "The Modfather", patron saint of every Englishmen with a ringing guitar and a sneering hook. So watching this excellent documentary on the man's career can be both bewildering and faith-affirming - enjoy!

Wreckless Eric: Live!

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Hey, please come check out these Ten Amazing Wreckless Eric Videos over at the THE BIG TAKEOVER!


Here's an undated but good-sounding Wreckless Eric (more HERE) solo set. Since it features a reading from his book 2004 autobiography "A Dysfunctional Success", a run-through of his 2002 single "Continuity Girl" and no mention of Amy Rigby we can safely assume this is from the earlier part of the 2000's.





MRML Readers,whaddaya think of this live set by WE?


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