Month: August 2009

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GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of Steve Wynn: Cool, Cheap Modern-Retro Guitars

wynnlogo3Fifteen years after he scratched a lifelong itch and moved to New York City, Steve Wynn has settled in nicely to life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The relocation also breathed fire into a music career that already had notched landmark albums by his first band, the Dream Syndicate, collaborations with Gutterball and a slew of excellent early solo releases. Once he turned 40, Wynn rolled up his sleeves and really went to work, cranking out masterpieces like 2001’s Here Come The Miracles and 2003’s Static Transmission. Wynn, wife/drummer Linda Pitmon, Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Scott McCaughey (Minus 5) are set to begin a U.S. tour. Read our Q&A with Wynn. (Also read our 2001 Q&A with Wynn, conducted by novelist George Pelecanos, as well as our overview of the Dream Syndicate and its fellow Paisley Underground bands.)

twintone550

Steve Wynn: The early ’80s was a rough time to be a guitarist. Everyone was trying to tell you that your instrument was soon to be extinct (anybody want to buy a cheap Yamaha DX7?) and guitar shops featured some of the ugliest looking (and sounding) things on the planets (Hamers, BC Rich and, worst of all, those headless freaking Steinbergers). Well, the good news is that cool/old-looking and cool/freaky-sounding guitars are out there again. My personal favorites are the guitars being made up in Canada by Eastwood and down here in the U.S. by DiPinto. I’ve recently picked up the TwinTone by the former and the Galaxie IV by the latter, and both are wonderful eye candy that make everything sound like your favorite Shadows Of Night song. And that’s a good thing. Don’t know how well they’d work on Kajagoogoo songs, though. Check out their websites: fun, retro guitar porn. And you can get almost any of them for well less than $1,000. I have been fortunate enough to have been taken on as a Fender endorsee and am about to try out one of the new Vintage ’62 Jazzmaster reissues. After playing the same Stratocaster for the last seven years, I guess I’m going through a bit of a guitar midlife crisis, which admittedly is a pretty benign offshoot of the ever-popular malady.

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DAVID LESTER ART

Normal History Vol. 22: The Art Of David Lester

davidleastervol-22Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 25-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.

War Between The Neighbors
 I suspect I’m part of a war between the neighbors, and soon enough, the doorbell rings. I am a guest, pressed up against the wall, closest to the screen door. A man outside, plaid shirt. The sun is behind him. Light bouncing off him, as if he’s in a film. Very smooth. His eyes are adjusting to the light inside. He looks without seeing me. I’m right here in the hall, holding a cup of bad coffee. If I had a split second more time, I could have disappeared around the corner of the living room. I stand still. In this lapse, I observe a man preparing for confrontation. My host is crouched and giggling, in his dressing gown, behind the sofa. The man at the door moves, he shimmers. He’s sweating now. Dark eyes flicker, pixelated by the screen. I’m noticing objects relative to other things—I enjoy this example, it’s riveting. I watch as his eyes connect to me. Focusing. He’s waiting for me to acknowledge him before he speaks. Small courtesy. As if we’re acting in a play. God only knows what would happen if we stopped behaving predictably. I’m in a war between the neighbors. I’m a guest, pressed against the wall. Coffee going cold in the silence before we speak. I take a sip, forgetting how bad, how cold, it is. Hey, maybe he knows where I can get a good coffee. “Down below,” he says, and points straight down. “I’m Leroy. He hasn’t told you about Leroy? Oh boy.” He turns, shaking his head, and makes his way back down the concrete steps, soft hand gripping the rail. My host is up off the floor, still giggling, holding his root-beer float. A dry residue of ice cream on the inside of his glass. I’m part of a war with the downstairs neighbor. I’m a guest, pressed up against the wall.

Categories
GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of Steve Wynn: Soul Jazz Records

wynnlogo3Fifteen years after he scratched a lifelong itch and moved to New York City, Steve Wynn has settled in nicely to life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The relocation also breathed fire into a music career that already had notched landmark albums by his first band, the Dream Syndicate, collaborations with Gutterball and a slew of excellent early solo releases. Once he turned 40, Wynn rolled up his sleeves and really went to work, cranking out masterpieces like 2001’s Here Come The Miracles and 2003’s Static Transmission. Wynn, wife/drummer Linda Pitmon, Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Scott McCaughey (Minus 5) are set to begin a U.S. tour. Read our Q&A with Wynn. (Also read our 2001 Q&A with Wynn, conducted by novelist George Pelecanos, as well as our overview of the Dream Syndicate and its fellow Paisley Underground bands.)

burningspear550

Steve Wynn: I was a bit of a reggae fan in my college years. Not a fanatic, by any measure (I didn’t even smoke weed), but I would pick up the odd Burning Spear (pictured) or Dr. Alimntado record. But 18 months as the day clerk at Rhino Records (side by side with my workmate Nels Cline, but that’s a story for another place, another time) put me into a Clockwork Orange-like experience in which the store manager would play nothing but reggae white label DJ 12-inch records all day long, leaving me unable to listen to reggae music for years. All that changed when I discovered the incredible “Dynamite” (100{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191}, 200{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191}, 300{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191}, etc) series on Soul Jazz Records. These collections are to reggae what Nuggets was to ’60s rock, finding the murkier, more mysterious tracks beneath the mainstream machine. I made my way out to the label’s flagship London record store, Sounds Of The Universe, and bought up almost everything on the label, an imprint that also includes some of the best New Orleans, ’80s post-punk, Nuyorican and jazz compilations. Great packaging and mastering as well—definitely a return to the days when you could buy anything on a particular label and know that you’d most likely get something very exciting.

Categories
VIDEOS

Film At 11: Think About Life

Montreal’s best-kept secret is back with a vengeance. And if anyone could pull off the three-men/one-shirt look, it’s Think About Life. In the video for “Sweet Sixteen,” the dance-punk trio delivers an ’80s tribute, complete with boom box, that more than holds up in the modern age. Sophomore album Family will be released in the U.S. in October, but it’s already out in Canada—and it’s worth making a run up north for.

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TIVO PARTY TONIGHT

TiVo Party Tonight: Brendan Benson, The Dead Weather

tivobrendan5033Ever wonder what will happen during the last five minutes of late-night TV talk shows? Here are tonight’s notable performers:

The Late Show With David Letterman (CBS): Brendan Benson
If you’re unfamiliar with him, Benson is that other guy from the Raconteurs. Not Jack White. But to put it that way would be like talking down to him. Benson is a Nashville dude, but totally into power pop, and he just released his fourth solo album, My Old, Familiar Friend (ATO). The LP has been described as “pure, unbridled joy in recorded form,” and we’re stoked to watch him play.

The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien (NBC): The Dead Weather
Rerun from June 18, The Dead Weather—the aforementioned Jack White, Alison Mosshart (Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens Of The Stone Age, Waxwings) and Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs)—performed their U.S. television debut on The Tonight Show, playing “Hang You From The Heavens” from their debut album, Horehound (Third Man).