8/29/07

Mass Street Music



Today's entry is about Mass Street Music in Lawrence. It's far and away my favorite guitar store. They have an amazing acoustic section, which is nice for me. They have everything from starter acoustics clear up to really expensive and limited or vintage (or both) Martins. The electric guitar selection is amazing too. I've spent a lot of time and a lot of money in there too. Their selection is unmatched, but the best part of the store is their people. They're all players, and they all know just about everything you could want to know about an instrument or amplifier.

Just about every guitar I've bought has come from there, and they're still small enough and interested enough to remember people's names when they come and know what they like and look for. I can't even put into words how much I recommend this place. If you're local to Lawrence or the surrounding area, check them out at 1374 Massachusetts street. Or if you're not local, or just prefer the internet, check them out at www.massstreetmusic.com

08/26/07

Today's dose is a book.




This is a book that I just finished, and I know that I'll be re-reading it in the future, as well as using it as an encyclopedia for all things Big Star.

This is a really great book, although it can be a little slow at times. In the beginning they list so many high school bands and their members that you can feel a little lost in all the names, once it gets around to about 1970 however, it's fantastic. I never could have imagined the wealth of information I got from reading this book. Not only is it an excellent story of how Big Star came to be and the aftermath and eventual resurrection that followed, it has a complete listing of all Big Star albums, and their individual members' solo albums as well. I was pleasantly surprised with it. I wish there was a hardback version available, because I know that the soft cover is going to become quite damaged.

Big Star never really quite lived up to their name. The faced a lot of indifference and problems in the early '70s, both of which led to their demise. A problem with their label and it's parent company led to the album mostly only being available locally in Memphis, despite receiving mostly positive reviews from all across the country. Their first album had what is probably their most famous song, In The Street, despite the fact that most people know it from it's covered and retitled version as the theme song to That 70's Show, as played by Cheap Trick. #1 Record is probably the first power-pop album ever made in America. (Badfinger take the title for England and the world.) It shows an influence of and would be appealing to fans of the original British Invasion music of the early-to-mid 1960's. All the members were the type who took up electric guitars after The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan for the first time on February 9th 1964.

After their first album, Chris Bell left, and a definite change was felt in the group. After two more albums, Big Star split up, only to reform in 1993, minus founding member Chris Bell who died in the mid-seventies.

I remember the first time I became aware of Big Star, I was already a huge fan of The Box Tops, mostly their first album, but all of their music too. When I was about twelve or thirteen I got ahold of some kind information about them on the internet, and it mentioned that their singer, Alex Chilton had gone on to a band called Big Star. eBay was brand new at that point, and I found someone in Memphis selling all three albums on vinyl for $5. I got outbid as time went on, but ended up winning with about a $15 bid. After about three weeks (mailing a check to them as PayPal didn't exist and then waiting to get the albums back) I finally heard the LPs. I played them in their chronological order, and I was amazed. I liked the first and third albums best, but #1 Record was, and still is, my favorite of the trilogy. I still remember hearing The Ballad of El Goodo and being so excited and impressed. It was one of those songs that not only inspired me to go and write music and play the guitar myself, I also knew that I could never be that good. This was during the same period that I got heavily into The Beatles, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, and other power pop and Beatles inspired music, something that left an amazingly large impression on me for the rest of my life.

Download 'Thirteen' by Big Star, from their first album "#1 Record."

Purchase this book and Big Star albums @ Amazon.com:



For more information:

Big Star @ Wikipedia

8/25/07

Hopefully this is going to the first in a series of posts each day, as opposed to the random posts I've been doing right now.

Today's dose is a movie.

The first time I ever saw this movie was with Papa on Thanksgiving in 1994. It aired on our local PBS station at around 11'0 clock at night, and followed The Beatles' HELP! movie. When it first started, we weren't really aware of what it was. As it went on and on and got more bizarre I knew this was a movie like I'd never seen. We had no idea what the title was, and it never showed again (as far as we knew) and I never really forgot about it. Different situations would bring it up into my mind, memories of the Morgan character (played expertly by David Warner) and his obsession with gorillas and Karl Marx. Around 1999 (after being able to drive to the places I wanted to go) I asked around at different video retailers and rental places, including a couple that specialized in foreign and hard-to-find titles. After explaining the plot, and noting that it was from England, and in black-and-white; nobody knew what the hell I was talking about. About three-and-a-half years later, in early 2003, following the trend of obscure and foreign movies being released on DVD, I started posting around on different message boards and blogs about the movie, did anyone know the title. Strangely enough, someone from Lawrence (where I had done 90% of my seeking for the title in the pre-DVD days.) responded with an e-mail about the title. I bought the movie from Amazon about ten minutes later, and it's one of my most watched and most beloved DVDs. It's a bit of a unique film, and if you really dislike British cinema or '60s films, this is probably not one that you're going to love. However, if you keep an open mind going into it, and appreciate it for how unique and unlike other films it is, then it's probably going to secure a warm and welcome spot in your collection.

Purchase 'Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment' @ Amazon:

For more information:
Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment @ Wikipedia
Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment @ IMDB

Badfinger

This is a band that I've been listening to a lot lately. I don't remember exactly when I first became aware of Badfinger, but it was when I was around 12 or so. I remember hearing No Matter What, Day After Day, and Come And Get It, but I wasn't aware of the Beatles connection until The Beatles Anthology, Vol. 3 came out and had Paul's original demo of Come And Get It. This song was one that I wasn't too aware of at that point, although I found it on a single a couple of years later. It's probably my favorite Badfinger song right now, even though there's such of a wealth of music that they made. It's really hard to pick a favorite, but this one's pretty awesome, and has an amazingly memorable riff.


Badfinger - Baby Blue [U.S. Single Mix Version]

The song was released on Apple records, and got to #14 on the Billboard US Charts. There's also a different version on the Straight Up LP, also issued by Apple.

Aimee Mann also did an amazing cover of this for a Badfinger tribute album. It's worth looking into even if you don't like Badfinger, I think it stands on it's own really well.

Purchase Baby Blue on either of these CDs from Amazon:




For more information:

Badfinger @ Wikipedia