BOTH PUNKS AND BUNNY'S MAKE HIM DANCE

It's amazing how quickly the week passes, dropping me on Friday night's doorstep. If people knew how government was spending their tax dollars working (or not working) for us, there would be many more Republicans out there. An attempt will be made to break free of the home and go skiing with my son this weekend.

Culture of toughness
Sedative masks nations pain
Their moral weakness

Master of machines
Men of the atomic age
Still part of the past

Lists of things to do
The choices falling like rain
Small bucket of time

The evening started off with another variation of Van Halen's October 15, 1977 show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. By my count, there are about eight variations of this show out there under separate cover. This may be because the show is a high quality soundboard recording of the band from the pre-VH1 days. Van Halen played only one more live show before that first album was released. A great sound that gets the listener up on their feet.

Stringed saber in hand

Deftly wields his sharp edged sound

Cuts right to the heart

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5QAVHTJI

It arrived in the mail today. The Echo & the Bunnymen's DVD Dancing Horses, recorded in November 2005 at London's Shepherds Bush Empire. The video captures a good night when the Bunnymen deliver a tight set of their old and new songs. Naturally, the camera focuses on both Ian, cigarette almost constantly in hand, and Will, who attention is focused on his superb guitar work and never seems to look up at the adoring fans. The family was out this evening and so I had the house to myself, cranking up the sound on the television, rocking out there before the flat screen stage. Such a major contrast in style between the Bunnymen and Van Halen! But both strike a cord deep within me and I love'em both.

A reviewer of the DVD says this:

"The band plays like a storm, the double guitars of Will Sergeant and Gordon Goudie creating the vast layers of melodic noise that has been the band's enduring signature. The set is well constructed, punctuating noisy rockers like "Villiers Terrace" and "The Cutter" with softer, dreamy tunes like "Bring on the Dancing Horses," "Nothing Lasts Forever," and Donnie Darko's favorite song, "The Killing Moon." What really sets a good Bunnymen night apart, however, is how engaged singer Ian McCulloch is in the performance. His voice is a lot raspier than it used to be, and he doesn't dance around as much as when I saw him in the mid-90s (if he does at all, which is not really; you've never seen a singer wear a heavy coat through a whole show and not break a sweat the way he does), but he is incredibly present on Dancing Horses. The show ends with the softer "Ocean Rain," and his voice is honeyed and sweet. Maturity has actually improved it."

Hunger and unrest

Driven by what he knows not

Waits for the answer

Stands in pure blueness

Microphone held in one hand

We're in the other

There in black and white

A voice that creates desire

Those lips of sugar

THE CLOCK HAS STOPPED TICKING?

Something remarkable happened this Saturday night. Van Halen was a no show when it came to the late night concert. Granted that the music started very late in the evening and I didn't want to stay up all night, but subconsciously I was delaying putting on the headphones, probably because a) I was not in the mood to listen to Van Halen and b) I was not in the mood to flood my body with another dose of tequila. But I did changed my mind and at around 11 PM went outside into the cold and listened to someone other than Van Halen and flood my body with a moderate amount of tequila. I'm not sure yet whether this means my "Year of Van Halen" is officially over.

Instead of a live concert, I opted for a collection of studio and live recordings, Echo & the Bunnymen's Ocean Rain, the expanded and remastered version that came out in 2003. Ocean Rain was first released on May 8, 1984. The album was marketed as "the greatest album ever made" and McCulloch later said it was because they believed it was. Although he also said it was meant as a joke when he said, "That wasn't my idea! I was on the phone to Rob Dickins (managing director of Warner Bros.) just joshing and I said 'Oh, it's the greatest album ever made.' And he used it on the poster." In a 2005 interview for Record Collector magazine, Sergeant asked, "Why not?" After wondering "what all the fuss was about", he went on to ask, "Doesn't every band think that way when they've got a new record out?"

Music journalist Max Bell said in his 1984 review for The Times newspaper, "This time vocalist Ian McCulloch has tempered his metaphysical songs with a romantic sweetness and the band's melodies are more to the fore. Acoustic guitars, brushes and sparingly used keyboards all add to the album's optimistic warmth and there is a consistency of atmosphere in songs like 'Seven Seas' and 'Silver', the current single, which justifies the departure

In the review of the original release on Allmusic, Ocean Rain was described as Echo & the Bunnymen's "most beautiful and memorable effort" and went on to describe "The Killing Moon" as the band's "unrivalled pinnacle"

Blender described the album as "a portrait of splendid derangement with spectacular orchestrations".

Mojo said the album had "effervescent songs, sympathetically orchestrated".

In his 2005 book Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978–1984, British music journalist Simon Reynolds describes the album as "lush, orchestrated and [...] overtly erotic".

Along with the other four of the band's first five albums, Ocean Rain was remastered and reissued on CD in 2003 – these releases were marketed as 25th anniversary editions. Eight bonus tracks were added to the album. This is the version I listened to this evening.

When reviewing the 2003 remastered edition Allmusic added "the bonus material is nothing less than superb, and makes the band's best album even better".

He closes his eyes

Reality's grip released

Carried far away

Fresh snow coats the ground
Bright stars awash in moon's light
Feels the winters chill

Swept by musics sound
He offers no resistance
Rides emotions wave

Download it here:

http://mccranksjuke.blogspot.com/2008/02/echo-bunnymen-ocean-rain-b-sidesdemos.html

DRIVEWAY ROCK CONCERT

The week went by quickly with its ups and downs. The weekend arrives and its time to relax. Since I was skiing all last weekend and no new snow of any significant amount has fallen since then, the plan is to hang out at the house. There are a number of things I've been negligent getting done, which I now hope to make some progress on.

First up was Echo & The Bunnymen's show in their hometown at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in August of 2001. The track listing almost serves as a 'best of'. Songs from each phase of the band are found on the CD. Early songs such as 'Rescue' and 'All That Jazz' are played with the same vibrant energy as they were in 1980. Will Sergeant unique guitar work shines on cuts such as 'Over The Wall' and 'The Cutter'. Ian McCulloch's raspy voice is in top form, especially on 'The Killing Moon' and 'Nothing Lasts Forever'. The band's performance of 'Ocean Rain' is unbelievable - it seems like it wouldn't be possible to transfer the beauty of the recorded version of this song to a live setting, but they succeed. I enjoyed this commercially available recording immensely!

Sits atop the pole

Owl black against the moon lit sky

Calls into the night

Sounds so compelling

A voice like an angel

Launched into a dream

Lives a life adrift

Searches for what seems secure

Always out of reach

Download it here:

http://www.rapidshare.com/files/155160608/Echo_And_The_Bunnymen_-_2006_-_Live_In_Liverpool.part1.rar%20http://megadownload.net/search/echo%20%26%20bunnymen/all.html

http://megadownload.net/download/rs/155166259/echo_and_the_bunnymen_-_2006_-_live_in_liverpool.part2.rar

Instead of listening to another hour+ long show, I went for something short and sweet. I popped Van Halen's 1991 F.U.C.K studio album into the CD player. This is their third number 1 album and it's loaded with some of the best Sammy era songs.

According to Ian Christe's The Van Halen Saga:

"Despite Eddie's gestures to sobriety after his father's death, the F.U.C.K. sessions were marked by the frequent pffft of beer cans opening - at least half a case a day. "My problem is that I go to the office to drink," Eddie told Guitar World. "It's completely ass-backwards. And the only reason I kept doing it is because it still works, believe it or not. It just breaks down inhibitions. And I'm too inhibited, ordinarily - I get real nervous."

"Ultimately the album became Hagar's favorite with the band, with 5150 a close second. F.U.C.K. was the hardest rock he'd recorded with Van Halen, probably what Roth-era fans would have preferred at the outset in 1986. At times it resembled the best possible Sammy Hagar solo record imaginable. Though sounding more vivid, Van Halen did seem to be entering a holding pattern - but nobody was going to complain about circling at number 1."

Sounds so delicious

Provides juice to his aged joints

Blows his fucking mind

BLUE SKIES AND KILLER SNOW

I woke to the sounds of people preparing breakfast in the hut. Eat, get dressed and then head out into the snow, climbing the 800 feet to the summit of Bald Knob. What a view of the Elk Mountains, with a string of snow covered 14,000 foot peaks jutting up before us. Turn around and do some laps in the foot of untracked powder, weaving in and out of the isolated trees. We next ascend a different part of the mountain, in search of new powder on a densely wooded slope. The pleasure to gliding downhill weaving in and out of trees, riding on a cushion of soft white fluff! Hooting and hollering, punctuated with the sound of snapping branches!

Back at the hut and crack open the bottles of tequila. Dinner, more tequila, a game of charades, more tequila and cap off the night with fireworks that I hauled up the mountain! What a blast of a day in a beautiful location surrounded by such beautiful people!

After everyone called it a night and headed upstairs to the comfort of their bunks, I went outside to begin the nights music. I started off with The Killers performance at the Fenix Festival in Arena Santiago, in Santiago, Chile on November 4, 2007. Great sounding recording of their whole show. This was a week before they released their compilation album called "Sawdust", containing B-sides, rarities, and some new material, on November 12, 2007. They were riding a wave of popularity at the time (and still are), and therefor headlined many festivals in Europe, South America and the US that year. They're hot on this recording and the crowd loves it! They were also rocking the McNamara hut that night.

The planets align

A universe poised to speak

No one takes notice

Climb into the trees

Many painful steps upward

Lured by the powder

Cigar embers burn

Tequila and the music flow

Meant to tranquilize

Download it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/74303245/The_Killers_-_F_nix_Festival__Santiago__Chile__04.11.07_.rar

Van Halen headlined the show tonight! I pulled out the second half of their May 1992 show in Fresno, CA, sending me into a higher state of ecstasy! There was so much tequila drinking on this trip that my flask held only a couple fingers worth, requiring I break out that bottle of red wine I had hauled up, sitting unopened inside the hut. That kept the party going right up until the end! A fantastic recording, even though it had been edited to remove all of Sammy's chatter between the songs, taking away from the concert experience I had grown to enjoy.

Behind the scenes that year, deep animosity still poured out into the open between the long departed David Lee Roth and Van Halen. According to Ian Christe's The Van Halen Saga:

Roth appeared on Howard Stern's radio show in July 1992, offering his pitch to be reinstated in Van Halen. Perhaps sensing some weakness behind the band's protest of continued happiness, he unleashed his cruelest torrent of anti-Sammy abuse yet. "Sammy is a mindless little bridge troll. Everything that comes out of his mouth is word barf. It's the lowest common denominator. It's music for children. Jimi Hendrix never made music for children. The fourteen-year-olds may have loved it, but the Beatle's never made music for twelve-year-olds." "The reason I left Van Halen was they were completely stoned all the time. How do you make music with someone who is completely stoned or copping a buzz on a regular basis?"

Needless to say, Dave's musical career was sagging, drawing under capacity crowds when taking his show on the road. After hearing the news of Dave bashing the band, Eddie replied: "For anybody to think he's coming back is just ridiculous! It was a divorce - and who wants to relive that?"

In bed some time around 1 am.

Powers through the snow

A beauty in a backpack

Tight at forty three

Eddie takes the stage

Beneath the starry night sky

Sends him to heaven

Download Part 2 if USA 1992 here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4I0SX0ZG