007 (Shanty Town) to 13 de Maio

"007 (Shanty Town)"  Desmond Dekker and The Aces  The Harder They Come
"1-800 Ming"  Brothers Love Dubs/John Digweed  Global Underground: Los Angeles
"#1 Hit Song"  The Minutemen  Double Nickels On The Dime
"10 A.M. Automatic"  The Black Keys  Rubber Factory
"10,000 Years Behind My Mind"  Focus Three  Psych Out! (Mojo Disc)
"10:15 Saturday Night"  The Cure  Staring At The Sea: The Singles
"100 Days, 100 Nights"  Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings  100 Days, 100 Nights
"100% Of Nothing"  The Meat Puppets  Meat Puppets II
"11:59"  Blondie  Parallel Lines
"13 de Maio"  Caetano Veloso  Noites De Norte

I have been out of town for much of the past week, which really isn't an excuse given that the internet goes anywhere.  I did go to Athens, GA to see my older son play in an end-of-camp concert.  He played and/or sang covers of Deerhunter, Sonic Youth, Rage Against the Machine, and System Of A Down.  He also screamed his way through "Feel Good, Inc."  He withdrew his promise of "Super Stupid" ("specifically for you, dad") at the last minute.  The "rock band camp" is a phenomenon that is, without trying, a commentary on the state of popular music.  What started as a form of music specifically for youth, and terrifying to some adults, has now become a part of extra-curricular programming.  This is too broad a brush, obviously - there is still music that offends, and the wrong song could probably have parents complaining to the point of ending a program, I have no doubt.  Ignoring any broad social comment, the program my son attended was particularly great.

In fact, let me take this forum to sing my praises out to the zero readers I have.  Nuci's Space was established as a place to help "assist in the emotional, physical and professional well-being of musicians."  As a part of that mission, a few years ago they began a summer camp program to nurture young musicians.  The program has grown from one two-week session to two, and now includes a year-long after-school program.  My son's experience has been an uncategorized success.  The working musicians who come in as counselors for the camp are, to a body, experienced, involved, and interested in the youths' safety and well-being as well as in making them better musicians.  The songs are selected by the kids with input from the counselors, and range from well-known classic rock to obscure modern indy tracks.  The camp ends with a concert of eight bands, and all are of consistently high quality.  The camp seems focused on people who are serious about music as a career, and some of them have begun to perform locally.

Anyway.  This is our first Minutemen song, and a moment silence for D. Boon please.  Charles gives me a hard time because I may or may not bring up the fact that I saw them live before he died a little too often.  Sorry.  It can't be helped.  The Minutemen's talent and legend is so outsized compared to (and perhaps because of) their minimal output and the tradedy of D's death that sometimes I just have to mention it.  I have very few things in my life that pass for cool, so those that I have get played a lot.  (Fabulous Fox in Atlanta, Nov. 30, 1985 - opening for R.E.M. along with Jason & The Scorchers).  The car accident was less than a month later.

A quick quiz - who is/would be oldest?  Robert Plant, Keith Moon, Carlos Santana, or . . . Debbie Harry?  That is correct, the queen of new wave was born in 1945, and is older than each of those dinosaurs.  While younger than Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, and Jimmy Page (and all of the Beatles), she is also older than John Bonham and John Paul Jones.  This means absolutely nothing, just a curiosity I came across.  She was 5-10 years older than everyone else in Blondie.

Rubber Factory always feels like a transition album to me.  It feels like the Black Keys are trying to get out of the derivative blues-rock that got them going through their first two albums, but which was a somewhat limiting form.  This track is very much in the mold  of Thickfreakness but there is an effort to escape.  This process continued through Attack & Release as well as the BlakRok project, with Brothers being a validation of that effort - a fully-realized, mature album which is informed by what came before, but stands as its own creation.

So I am through the alphabet once.  A review to come in the next day or so, and then back to the A's.