1. Joe Cocker - With a Little Help From My Friends
With the flowing mane and the eruptive roar of a lion, Joe Cocker pours his soul into the microphone. At the softer parts his voice is sweet enough to make you cry, while during the choruses his explosive guttoral singing will make the hair on your arms stand on end. Aside from being the best Beatles cover song of all time, this performance both musically and lyrically exhibits peaceful music and the spirit of Woodstock in its most raw and powerful form.
There’s always a debate as to who was the greater President
Abraham Lincoln or FDR, the greater quarter back Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana,
the greater philosopher Hobbes or Locke, Coke or Pepsi, Jiff or Skippy. However, there is one superlative that nearly
everyone agrees on. Jimi Hendrix stands
alone as the greatest rock guitarist of all time.
There have been countless books and articles that have discussed
the cultural significance of this performance.
You can go on and on about how the chaotic explosions of feedback during
the Star Spangled Banner so perfectly represent the whistling bombs landing in
Vietnam at the time and the hippy populations’ stance on the War. However, the part of this video that amazes
me the most is its ability to display Hendrix's craft on a very personal level. Through
close-ups and crossfades, the cinematography displays the connection between
his brain synapses and the guitar strings. During an interview, Woodstock creator Michael
Lang was asked how musicians of the current age(late 1960’s) can reach the
audience so well. In response he said, “Music
has always been a major form of communication… only now the type of music is
more involved in society than it was.”
If this is the motto behind the Woodstock festival, than it is only fitting
for a person who communicates through his guitar, to close the concert.
This video also displays a full spectrum of Hendrix’s guitar
aptitude, from electric majesty(0:38-1:05),
to blistering speed(4:26-4:30) , to undeniable grace (10:17-10:45).
3.Santana- Soul Sacrifice
For 2 years Santana worked the San Francisco club circuit. They mostly played shows for 100 people or less, until Woodstock where they dazzled a sea of 500,000 hippies with their original blend of jazz, rock, and salsa. They work so fluidly as an on-stage music ensemble, from the thundering percussion section featuring 20 year old Michael Shrieve with his spastic drum fills and solos, to the jazzy bass grooves of David Brown, to pale-face Carlos Santana's sacrificial guitar surges. The music is so undeniably bad-ass. As you can see from the electrified crowd it was the kind of rock people needed in the late 60's........and yes that is a naked dude dancing with a sheep(on the left at 7:05).
".....I was under the influence of LSD.....the guitar neck felt like an electric snake that wouldn't stand still. That's why I was making ugly faces, trying to make the snake stand still so I can play it."
-Carlos Santana
Alvin Lee leaves everything on stage with heavy soulful vocals and furious guitar riffs that'll run circles around a merry-go-round. Too stoned to even form a proper sentence, Alvin barely even opens his eyes yet nails every note and always manages to find the microphone. At times during this performance you just don't believe that it is happening. My favorite part of this video is at the end where he haphazardly throws his guitar aside and clumsily walks off with a watermelon on his shoulder, that of which was thrown on stage at the end of the song, as if that was his next order of business.
Joan Baez's performance in the Woodstock documentary is my favorite female vocal performance ever. With nothing but her voice and her guitar Joan Baez first sings, "Joe Hill" as a prideful antiwar protest. Dropping her guitar, she then breaks into the most mindblowing version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." With magnificent cinematography and carefully placed transitions, Joan Baez comes off as a guardian angel glowing in the spotlight, blue flames flowing from her mouth as she nails the final high notes.
6. Canned Heat - A Change Is Gonna Come With bone rattling drums, guitar that'll give you goosebumps, and bellowing vocals, Canned Heat gives a shining performance of heavy Chicago blues. The camera work for this video is simply unbelievable. The whole song is one shot. Throughout the performance the camera gets close and personal with every member of the band, including a fan who comes on stage and steals a cigarette from the singers breast pocket. This is where the documentary shows how deep the talent ran at Woodstock. Everytime I watch the film, I forget how much I love the 60's until Canned Heat comes on.
7. Sly and the Family Stone - I Want to Take You Higher
Without pipes, pills, or needles, Sly takes the hippy masses at Woodstock to a higher ground with a dazzleing ensemble of supercharged funk. It is a total mystery as to why an area of music with such an unstoppable energy that was so visually entertaining, would gradually fade away like it did. Shimmering in the blue spot light, Sly and the Family Stone breaks musical borders with there funkadelic force of horns, keys, and groovy beats that are so incredibly unique from any form of rock'n roll.
In 1969 The Who was was on the forefront of the hard rock movement. Their version of Summertime Blues signfies a change in rock culture. Between Daltry's raging raspy vocal, Einwistles rumbling bass riffs, Moon's sparatic snare attacks, and Townshend's violent guitar playing, The Who proved that rock should be played loud and should be a visual spectacle.
It's 1969 and all of a sudden every band in the world now plays heavy blues rock. Jefferson Airplane was the most mainstream group at Woodstock. It says something about the music culture when the most pop oriented bands have such musical prowess. With oddly patriotic lyrics, "Uncle Sam Blues", turns into a highly charged pyshchedelic blues jam(2:45) that'll rock your socks off.
What better way to start three days of peace than to see Richie Havens walk on stage, close his eyes, tear into his guitar with vigor and sing passionately about freedom. From the time he steps up to the microphone until well after he walks away from the microphone Richie is lost in his music and plays right from his heart, which sets the tone of the festival.
I have come to love
Minus the Bear’s 3 full lengths so much and listened to all of their songs over
and over again, that in my mind I consider them all to have the same cool style
of technical ambient rock. This has leaded
me to forget that each album holds its own unique panache. This is why when I first heard the rather
flamboyant synthesizer and poppy chorus of, their newest album, Omni’s opening track “My Time,” I
quietly said to myself, “Oh my god, what have they done.” Though this is
certainly Minus the Bear’s boldest step in a new direction, my initial
repulsion was short lived.
Songs like “My Time”
and “Dayglow Vista Road” are just as creative and as equally well produced as
any other Minus the Bear track, they just carry a different attitude. In this
sense they require a few listens before you start to say, “yeah…….okay”.
In addition to a new
attitude, Omni has tracks like “Into to the Mirror” and “Animal Backwards” which have song formats unique to a Minus
the Bear album. “Into to the Mirror” is centered
around a female vocal performance, while “Animal Backwards” has a purely techno
sound to it, similar to the likes of the remix album, Interpretaciones Del Oso.
The later certainly being one of the high points of the album, these new
types of songs are a welcomed addition.
The best track however
without a doubt is “Summer Angel”.
Addicting from the start, this song proves that Minus the Bear has
maintained their superior musicianship and fantastic songwriting abilities.
However, I do have a
complaint with certain vocal sections of the album. For instance on “Secret Country” a wonderfully
technical and riveting chorus is undermined by dull and echo-like verses. Similarly
on “The Thief”, the singing in the opening verse doesn’t quite fit the
beach-funk quality of the song. It
sounds as if they are trying to make the verse vocals have a different sound as
chorus vocals, and it at times brings too much attention to itself.
In conclusion, Minus
the Bear is a band that never stands still, so if the first part of the song
doesn’t strike your interest, chances are one of the other nine parts
will. Omni, like I said is their boldest step and may not quite top any
of their last 3 albums but certainly deserves to be thrown onto“My Laidback Yet
Musically Brilliant Playlist.”
Yo Mama Joke of the
Day:
You mother is being
considered for a fill-in position with the coast guard……..it’s to plug the hole
in the gulf.
Wise quote:
“You can each as much
smart food as you want……….but as long as you consider cheesed popcorn a type of
vegetable, you’re still a fuckin moron.”
I was as behind the ball as could be with MGMT.Like everyone else I first heard them in late 2008 when “Kids” could be heard everywhere from radio stations, to college dorm rooms, to cell phone commercials.If there’s one thing I hate about pop music, it’s a gimmick.I listened to the first 5 tracks of Oracular Spectacular before deeming the duo as a couple of unoriginal numbskulls who stumbled upon a few catchy synthesizer riffs and decorated them with dance rock fluff. It turns out I am the numbskull.
I then read a Rolling Stones article about the recording process for their new album, Congratulations, which altered my standpoint. The articled detailed how the duo secluded themselves in a house and endlessly rehearsed and recorded until they found the sounds they were looking for. What really caught my attention was a quote from Ben Goldwasser, the bands electronic half.He said, “We have to keep pushing for sounds that are one step ahead of the pack.”This statement makes too much sense considering the musical age we are in, where all types of rock borrow from one another. In the end, it comes down to artists finding a unique sound hidden in all the melded genres and release it before someone else does.After reading it I gave Oracular Spectacular a second listen and immediately started to hear a band fighting for their music.
Now, instead of tasty synthesizer licks and danceable rock beats, the new album Congratulations introduces a fresh new consistency to MGMT.Where bands such asWolfmother, The Strokes, and The Hives imitate early 70’s hard rock(Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, The Who), Congratulations sounds like a modernized pre-classic rock album.
The most upbeat tracks are “Song for Dan Treacy” and “Brian Eno” where the band has the air of a punkish mixture of The Kinks and The B-52’s. Though they aren’t the most innovative tracks, they give the album a tempo to put MGMT back on the dance floor.
Aside from mimicking Syd Barret and Ray Davies, vocalist Andrew VanWyngarden also revisits echoey vocals with the track “Someone’s Missing”.His chanting of “It feels like someone’s missing”, at the end of this song sounds like the backing vocals of a The Mamas and the Papassingle and will get stuck in your head.
The high point on the album is “I Found A Whistle”.It is a mixture of all the pre-classic rock vocal influences with the epic ‘spectacularness’ of the synthesizer in their previous album. Here is where they find, “sounds that are one step ahead of the pack”.
While “Song for Dan Treacy” and “Brian Eno” are literal tributes to MGMT’s recording influences, the lyrics of the closing title track “Congratulations” reveal the humble message of the album.Rather than seeing their explosive success as a “paid vacation”, they recognize it as a constant congratulating that prevents them from “telling what’s really there.” Furthermore, they would “rather dissolve than to be ignored.” To MGMT success is an all encompassing congratulatory force, that leaves them blind and “dead in the water,” yet they can’t help but be addicted to it.
Considering the album is littered with so many 1960’s throwbacks, one could argue their previous album held more originality.However, Congratulations has a consistency from track to track which Oraclular Spectacular lacked and in this sense is more dangerously addictive.
Yo Mama Joke of the Day:
Yo mama is prohibited to walk in wooded areas, so as to limit Sasquatch conspiracies.
Wise quote of the day:
The phone book will never be replaced by the internet. You can't sit on the internet when you're too short to sit at the dinner table and won't fit in a baby chair.
For the past few weeks I have had a different job on Ghost Hunters. Instead of assisting exclusively the camera department, I now help with the whole crew. My duties include, buying groceries, making sandwiches, running errands, cleaning up after people. I’m a few laundry loads away from becoming a certified production mom.
This new job has a light side and a dark side. Just like in The Lion King. (Just because I’m not writing about Hamlet or King Lear doesn’t mean I can’t do metaphors.) The light side is very face paced and high energy (the pride lands). Then there is the dark side that is rather mellow and gluttonous (the jungle/ elephant graveyard).
On a day where we do an onsite ghost investigation, the first part of the day can be very hectic. We have to load the equipment, arrive on location, film the daytime scenes while there is still daylight. Then lunch orders need to be taken, placed, picked up, and delivered. All of this is under a very strict time scale. If there is one wrong turn, things can go badly very quickly. Then once the sun goes down the cast and crew have as much time as they need to film the night time scenes and do the investigation. At this point my duties are nothing more than to keep the snack table stocked and the coolers filled.
(Stay with me with the Lion King metaphor)This week we have been filming at the Philadelphia Zoo. On one of the days, something went wrong right out of the gate. (wildebeest stampede in the gorge) For the entire first half of the day everything seemed a little bit behind schedule and I felt like I was desperately scrambling to right things.(Mufasa’s attempt to save Simba) Then come lunch time, I lost one of the lunches(Mufasa dying) and I got yelled at by Scar…I mean my boss.
Then the sun went down. (this is the portion in the movie where Simba runs away from the pride lands and his duties as the true king) Knowing that I didn’t have any pressing matters to attend to, for the rest of the night, I grabbed a book and some trail mix that had melted chocolate in it(slimy yet satisfying), and hung out in the lion exhibit.
One day I shall return to the pride lands, but at the moment I’m content hanging in the jungle with a quick witted meerkat and a gassy warthog.
To give you an idea of scale, that tupperware is the size of a volleyball. They are very active at night, and this one kept interacting with me. It probably just wanted to eat me, but it was a delightful time nonetheless.
That’s all for now.
-Charlie
Haiku of the day:
The sun has gone down.
What should I do? I know! Read!
Between the lions.
Yo Mama Joke of the Day:
Yo mama is so fat, her first crush was on an African elephant.
For the past week I've been staying at the Otesaga Resort in Cooperstown, NY. It’s a hotel that overlooks a lake and a golf course. During the week, we were the only ones staying at the hotel, so we pretty much had free reign over the whole place. It’s a very old building that reminds me a lot of the hotel in the movie The Shining. The highlight of the week was roaming the corridors in complete darkness waiting for 2 little dead girls to pop out and say “Come play with us.”
This weekend two different companies held functions at the hotel. One of the companies was Ducks Unlimited, which is a corporation focusedon the preservation of wetlands and swamps. Last night they had a fundraising event at the hotel. At one point during the night there was a fireworks display over the lake.
I noticed the fireworks from my window and I went downstairs to get a better view from outside. The elevator doors opened to an extravagant party taking place in the lobby. There were circulating hors d'oeuvres, a band playing, and a silent auction with baseball memorabilia. I mingled with the crowd for a short while. However, my polo shirt and corduroys didn’t quite fit with the formal attire of the other guests. It worried me when the hotel staff started to suspiciously eyeball me. However I came up with a quick solution. Whenever I got a dirty look from a staff member or a guest, I took my camera out and asked the closest group of people or couple if I could take a picture for the website.
Lovely Evening
That’s all for now.
-Charlie
Interaction of the day:
-Hi....Jeff....Vermont Chapter
-Hi, I'm Charlie
-This is my wife Sarah.
-Pleased to meet you.
-So what chapter are you from?
-Oh, I'm not with you guys, I'm just here for the crab cakes.
Yo Mama Joke of the Day:
Yo mama is so fat, she stepped on a duck and made duck sauce.
