I suppose I should address the elephant in the blog & explain my prolonged absence. Boredom. That’s it. I was completely & utterly bored with anything that was coming out. I was searching for new & exciting things to come my way. Lissie made an album that I adore, but I couldn’t write anything that hadn’t been said. I had a whole soliloquy ready for the brilliance of Ray Lamontagne’s overnight transformation from Indie darling to bluegrass star & yet nothing came out. There was a block of sorts & much of it came from the draining effects of writing a book about my travels through Europe. A book that is finished in its infant form, but must now be raised into something I can market.

There were a few other albums that I quite enjoyed: Justin Townes Earle, Head & the Heart, Broken Bells, The Black Keys & obviously Arcade Fire which was the best album of the year, but perhaps through my own depression of  the musical offerings being put out there or indifference the ability to cognitively discuss these in terms that were worth reading was nonexistent. So here sat the blog. Relatively unchanged throughout the year as I struggled to put my thoughts into words. I feel I’ve made some sort of a turning point, even though I intended to begin writing last week. To be cliche I suppose it’s better late than never.

So I purchased two albums from Amazon the other day (yes I buy my music), where the $3.99 deals keep me coming back & spending on things I would otherwise think twice about buying. I bought Social Distortion’s new album Hard Time & Nursery Rhymes & the aforementioned Decemberists album The King is Dead. Let’s discuss Social D’s new album first. It’s been  7 years since they released an album & a few years since Mike Ness has come out with an album, himself. I’ve always been a fringe fan of Social D’s, as I do not have the dancing skeleton tattooed anywhere on my body. It has that patented loud Gibson sound & gruff Mike Ness nosy drawl, but with lyrics that seem to have more emotional impact than ever before. Take for instance “Still Alive”  where Ness pleads,

“I’m still alive, I will survive, I can handle what life brings, just give me time…I’m still alive, talking the same ol’ jive, I can handle anything that comes my way, just give me another day”

It ends with a short, but beautiful piano solo that made me really feel that this album rivals anything they’ve ever done. It is so reminiscent of early Springsteen that I haven’t stopped listening to it for 3 days. That is, except to listen to The Decemberists’ new album The King is Dead, an album which seems to have awoken them from their prog rock malaise from the past few years. It sounds so similar to early R.E.M. that it came as no surprise to see that Peter Buck contributed to three of the tracks. The opening track almost sounds Tom Pettyesque with heavy drums taking the forefront much like “You Don’t Know How it Feels”.

Colin Meloy really lets loose with his voice on The King is Dead & goes places that I haven’t heard him dare go vocally before. It shows that the risks were worth taking. Changing the sound & straying away from that boring sound have worked wonders & even though it came out in January there’s a distinct feeling that come coincidentally December we will still be talking about this album as one of the best of the year.

I can’t say I will write everyday as I do have a job that requires a good chunk of time, but I will continue to talk about things I love & look forward to talking about new releases from groups like Foxxhound, Two Guns, Cold War Kids, Amos Lee, Drive-by Truckers & Okkervill River. It will be a banner year for Indie music & soon Indie Music will become alternative & all the kids will have to jump on the bandwagon. I’m fine by that. Music should be loved by all & not thrown into some meta category to be hated once it becomes popular to the masses. If it’s good, love it. If it sucks, hate it, but don’t despise popular music for being popular. Despise it, much like I despise She Wants Revenge & Jason Mraz for being bad at music.

Machine Gun Blues – Social Distortion

Sweet & Lowdown – Social Distortion

Still Alive – Social Distortion

Don’t Carry It All – The Decemberists

This is Why We Fight – The Decemberists

Yesterday I purchased the new Witmark Demos number nine in Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series. Among the many gems found on The Witmark Demos are 15 Bob Dylan songs that were recorded by the artist only for these sessions, and which have never been officially released to the public until now. These include the plaintive“Ballad For A Friend,” the civil rights era-inspired “Long Ago, Far Away” and “The Death Of Emmett Till,” and the poignant “Guess I’m Doing Fine.” It really is remarkable. It’s basically Dylan in a studio with his guitar. Much like his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan it rings true to the essence of what Dylan sought out to be in the beginning.

On this Bootleg Friday, however, I’m sharing the Satisfied Mind Bootleg of Bob Dylan’s Nov. 11, 1975 concert at the Palace in Waterbury, Connecticut. Nothing like a little Bob for the weekend.

Bob Dylan – Satisfied Mind

A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall

Romance in Durango

Isis

Blowin’ In the Wind

The Water is Wide

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

Never Let Me Go

I Shall Be Released

Simple Twist of Fate

Oh Sister

Hurricane

One More Cup of Coffee

Sara

Just Like a Woman

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

This Land is Your Land

It’s raining today, not buckets like it will on Sunday I hear, but raining nonetheless. it seems that time of year is upon us. The time when the sun comfortably rests & the rains shower us with the moisture of the heavens. It’s only fitting that a band from the Seattle grunge scene played their first show ever today in 1990. Under the name Mookie Blaylock soon to be Pearl Jam they played a gig at the Off Ramp in Seattle & made rock history. Pearl Jam is one of those enigmatic bands that seems to shun the limelight* & genuinely care about the fans that support them. It seems like such a short time ago that I was listening to this new wave of music called grunge that would come to change my life.

*except when they’re fighting Ticketmaster.

20 years together is a feat for any kind of relationship, but especially a band with all the egos & celebrity that go along with being in a band that has sold out Soldier Field in Chicago among other places. Nirvana was together for less than a decade when Kurt killed himself, Alice in Chains lost Layne Staley to drugs & Chris Cornell did a pop album that was hideous before he decided to reunite with Soundgarden. Through all of that Pearl Jam has stayed together. It hasn’t all been pretty. They’ve made some pretty bad albums, but also some of Rock’s greatest albums including Ten. An album they think was overproduced. So in staying true to their vision I’ve recently gotten hold of the first week rehearsal demos (10/23/90) from a friend & I will now share them with on this the 20th anniversary of Pearl Jam.

Also, because it is raining & I do love it so, here is a poem (not something I would normally condone – poetry that is) by Sara Teasdale that I first saw in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. One of my favorite books of all-time & really less about Martians & more about life in the Nuclear Era.

There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pool singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

There are some that have asked for zip files & others that want to pick & choose what they download. Unfortunately, right now the company that I store my files with does not do zip files yet & I really don’t want to move to another site. So for now this will have to do, sorry.

Pearl Jam First Week Demos – 10/23/90

Even Flow

Once

Breath

Release

Girl

Goat

Alive

Alone

Oceans

Black

Improv (Early Yellow Ledbetter)

Weird A

Daddy Could Swear I Do Declare

As far as super groups go there hasn’t been a truly great one since the Traveling Wilbury’s in my opinion. Monsters of Folk are more like Monsters of mediocrity & the Dead Weather again are just ok, but Fistful of Mercy is one supergroup that may be bucking the trend of average super groups. With Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper & Dhani Harrison this “Super group” has some heavy hitters backing it. Dhani Harrison is  the son of George Harrison & looks/sounds so much like his father it’s eerie. I don’t have much info on Joseph Arthur & truthfully I’ve never heard of him, but his voice is pretty great & melds well with Harrison’s & Harper’s. The Traveling Wilbury’s comparison is an easy one to make considering George was in that band & his son is in this one.

I’ll let you draw the correlation between the two yourself, but suffice it to say i am impressed & can’t wait to see them live when they come up to SF.

Anything You Want – Traveling Wilbury’s

Fistful of Mercy – Fistful of Mercy

Handle Me With Care - Traveling Wilbury’s

Things Go Round – Fistful of Mercy

Last Night – Traveling Wilbury’s

Fridays seem to be the worst day of the week (weekends don’t count, though Sundays are unusually heavy for traffic) for traffic & so I figure I’ll be moving Bootleg Thursdays to Bootleg Fridays so as to increase some form of flow through the weekend. Maybe it makes me more viable, maybe it just gives me an extra day to chill. I am a lazy man, but I am trying to break from the constraints of laziness. I hope to be covering more new music, instead of just older rock. There will, hopefully, be a nice mixture of both.

This week, with the re-release of Bruce Springsteen’s brilliant album Darkness on the Edge of Town & the box set with 3 Dvd’s & cd’s that accompanies it, I thought it’d be cool to go back & listen to one of the concerts from that time. Then I thought, I have a  lot of time to think now, that I could share one of his epic 1980 concerts with you, my readership.I believe this is from his tour for The River, but it has many of his classic Darkness songs on there so enjoy.

Bruce Springsteen -  Nassau – 1980

Independence Day

Who’ll Stop the Rain (CCR Cover)

This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie Cover)

The Promised Land

Out in the Street

Racing in the Street

The River

Badlands

Thunder Road

Cadillac Ranch

Sherry Darling

Hungry Heart

Fire

Candy’s Room

Because the Night

I went on Saturday to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival & it was fantastic, but Sunday was the day that I will remember for all my days. My sister & I arrived early in the morning to make sure we had a good seat at the stage where the Avett Brothers would play later that evening. They were the ones we wished to see most of all, but we were eager to see everything that the festival had to offer.

When the Felice Brothers came on, expectations were low. I’d heard of the band from New York in passing, but was not sure of what they had to offer. What they had to offer was a brilliant collection of songs that came across as a hybrid of Bob Dylan, The Band & Tom Waits.  We marveled at their presence & we enjoyed them without reservation.

Then came on Moon Alice & we were less enthusiastic about their performance. They were from a bygone generation of Dead Heads that didn’t appeal to my or her generation*. They spoke of doing hallucinogenic drugs & of playing with the Grateful Dead throughout the world. I must put this out there that I have a strong distaste towards the Grateful Dead & Jam bands in particular. It’s great if you’re on acid, but if stoned or drunk it does nothing but wear on one’s patience. Since I’ve never tried any psychedelic drugs (unless you consider pot as such) I couldn’t relate.

*My sister & I are 15 years apart, but oftentimes, if not at all times, she is the voice of reason.

Boodge (what my sister will be heretofore referred to as) & I decided to eat lunch. The sun came out for a spell & we basked in its glory, however short lived & we were asked by a young hippie what we were eating & where we could get it. Whole Foods, that corporate conglomerate that brilliantly markets itself to nonconformists was the answer & she brimmed with near luminescence at the suggestion that we didn’t propagate one of the other corporate establishments such as: Safeway, Raley’s or Lucky’s. As if this corporation was better than the others because it had a better global strategy to make more money by being the organic food headquarters, by being morally just to  follow laws about fair trade & by not being afraid to hire those, nay encourage their employees (male or female) to have dreadlocks & beards. A brilliant corporate strategy & one not lost on those that have the power of literacy.

I, however, could care less about any of that. While being a concerned global citizen, my main objective is selfish to be true. I want the best price I can find for my buck. Sure I can get a cup of coffee for a buck & Winchell’s**, but Starbuck’s offers the facilities to sit & write this diatribe for $1.95 so I’m getting more for my money. That, my friends, is economics.

**That is assuming I’m not dating myself & Winchell’s is still around.

After we consumed our hummus & flatbread thing with Spinach we left our blanket & ice chest at our little spot & headed off to wander to the various booths of food & merch before going to see Randy Newman. Randy Newman was uproariously funny. Cracking jokes in-between songs & we laughed as if seated in a comedy club. It was half way through the set that I became distracted by a curious Groundhog, named Gunther by Boodge. He would come up eat a little grass, peer out over the crowd & scurry back into his hole. Shy, but not overly so it didn’t take him to long to become comfortable with me & eat leaves right from my hand.

After Randy Newman’s set, which included scattered boos for playing “I Love L.A.” we headed off to see Elvis Costello, one of the larger draws of the show. We got a spot on  a hill about a mile away, which was great for about five minutes until the sheer masses of people began to crowd around us & the young Boodge’s claustrophobia got the better of her. Five songs & we headed off to the Avett Brothers stage. Declan MacMannus would have to wait for another day.

As we walked over, Boodge felt a desire to apologize for her ailments. How heartless must one be to want to subject someone they care about to such deplorable a condition as thousands of people pushing against you & making you terribly uncomfortable. Apologies weren’t necessary as I was none to happy to subject her or myself to something thoroughly unenjoyable.

We caught the Yonder Mountain String Band & they made us dance with a joy that is usually reserved for weddings, funerals & bar mitzvahs. Banjos, fiddles & an accordion ruled the hour as we lost all inhibition to what others may think. We had never heard their music before, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying them as if they were our hometown band making a trip through one last time.

After they finished we anxiously awaited the band we wanted to see most of all. Boodge wanted them to play “Colorshow” more than anything & wouldn’t you know they came out & led with it. The tempo was set & we lost ourselves in the music. They played songs from their newest album, their older albums & a cover of Doc Watson’s “Blue Ridge Mountains”. The throngs of people made it even better as we belted out the lyrics as though we’d written them ourselves. We sang with reckless abandon as well all peered out over the haze of fog & marijuana smoke that permeated the festival atmosphere.

As if on cue when “Salina” came on we danced like Native Americans dancing for rain & when the lyric “The rain it fell, the story went on. The rain it fell & we got gone” came we all screamed it as a steady drizzle fell in the valley of trees where the stage was situated. Epic is a word that I throw around, sometimes too often, but that is what the scene was in a word. The energy put into that set left us speechless. After an hour & a half of singing & playing their hearts out the boys from North Carolina left the stage to pure love & affection.

In that moment, where we all sang “I & Love & You” & the Avetts left the stage we genuinely felt it. It was nothing but admiration, thankfulness & love for giving us an experience. There are things that have stuck with me in my life, the births of my sisters, niece & nephew, my father’s passing, the first time I saw Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney & Bad Religion. This was one of those moments where time stood still & 100, 000 voices on the ground, in the trees, on hills sang in unison to the heavens. No violence, no strife as the free festival carried through three days of peace due to the benevolence & generosity of Warren Hellman.

As we left the excitement was palpable & life was good. We were throughly exhausted, but it was the good kind. The kind that makes you know that the thing you just witnessed was magical & will be a story that never grows old. We were there, like it was Monterey ’67 or Woodstock ’69. We watched these artists give us joy & in turn we gave them love & admiration. Our lives were forever changed by music & why shouldn’t it be music that changes lives. Why must life always be changed by negative things? Why can’t that those moments of joy stay locked in our cranial cavities like money in a safe only coming out when we feel the need to share. It was a glorious day!

Bryan Bishop aka “Bald” Bryan is from the Adam Carolla Show, the Film Vault & the blog An Inconvenient Tumor. Over a year ago Bryan was diagnosed with Brain cancer, but it isn’t something he dwells on. There is rarely an instance where he will discuss it at length as the march of time moves on & there are things that could be missed in the span of time one feels sorry for themselves. I get a hang nail & I focus on that for a week, but Bishop is a man of extraordinary character & perseverance.

His podcast The Film Vault may be the best thing going on the ACE Broadcasting Network, as lively discussion takes place & opinions are allowed to be heard without the droll of Adam hogging the entire segment. I have been a fan of film for a long time, even dabbled in film school for a minute, but listening to Bald Bryan’s podcast has taught me more than ever. Bryan was kind of enough to agree to a Twitterview with The De Mello Theory.

Me: I was reading your blog “An Inconvenient Tumor” about a week ago & there was some major concern on your wife’s part having to do with your benefits exceeding. Does the strain of your situation & the obvious love uou have for your job conflict with reality on occasion?

Bryan: Yes, the conflict is: As much as I love it, the podcast (in its current form) isn’t a “job” (ie, salary & benefits). At some point (soon), reality is I’ll need a job that provides health coverage. Kinda non-negotiable.

Me: Ur love for film comes through quite naturally on The Film Vault Podcast. Is ur position that of a film fan that has seen many movies or that of a film expert because of ur dedication to film for so many years?

Bryan: The whole idea of “film experts” is absurd to me. Kinda like Relationship Expert. We’ve ALL had relationships, yes? I’ve seen many movies, I remember a lot about them & have many opinions. And I have a microphone. Thus, I podcast.

Me: For as long as I’ve listened to you on the Adam Carolla Show, the podcasts & read ur wife’s blog I’ve for some reason had the feeling that ur the podcast equivalent to Lou Gehrig. U r such a genuine person in ur affection for ur work & the people that listen & work w u. What has this whole experience taught u?

Bryan: The only thing Gehrig & I have in common is that I nicknamed my penis The Iron Horse. But thanks for the compliment. It’s taught me how amazing & generous people are. Also, I really never realized how much the show touched people.

The Film Vault airs every week on the Ace Broadcasting Network. You can find it on i-Tunes or on AdamCarolla.com. I’d like to thank Bryan for letting me ask him some questions that I’m sure aren’t easy to answer. As he continues to work through what is a difficult situation we should all send our positive thoughts his & his wife, Christie’s way. They are truly amazing people we can all learn a thing or two from.

He has also been a judge on the VH1 show Charm School, taking over for another former Loveline Host Rikki Rachman & was the Season 5 DJ for the Ellen Degeneres Show. I did a Twitterview with him & I must preface this by saying that I really screwed up the first question. I was under the impression that he hosted the Locals Only show Sunday Nights on KROQ, but I did not do my due diligence/research & was quickly corrected. I apologize to Kat Corbett & would love to interview her in the future.

Me: You seem to have aligned yourself with the Local/Indie band scene in LA with your Locals Only show. Is the goal to give the bands exposure or are you given directives on who to push by the KROQ brass?

Stryker: Locals Only is not hosted by me. Kate Corbett is the host!

Me: In 2004 there was a report that you were considered for a Judge position on American Idol but you declined on principle. How do you feel about that now?

Stryker: I still feel ok about not doing A.I. I was a young newbie on the #1 Radio Station in the USA & needed to prove myself.

Me: You left Loveline, then left Kroq & worked @ AMP where Carson Daly, who happens to be the person people most associate your career with works, did you leave KROQ because of the sticky Loveline situation or was it something you felt was a better opportunity at AMP?

Stryker: I left KROQ to try out the AMP world & realized KROQ is me. It’s my home, it’s my favorite station. AMP is a great station, but not me.

I have been a frequent critic of Fitzsimmons, while remaining a huge fan, mainly because I have felt he’s sat on his talent. It’s rare that people as funny as Greg come along & yet he still isn’t a household name like he should be. Perhaps, that is by design as it is extremely difficult to have any kind of normal life & still be recognizable. He’s like a great Indie band that plays together forever & still not everyone knows them, see: The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Ryan Adams.

He has been outspoken about his past addiction to alcohol & his current use of prescription medication to deal with ADD & Depression. His life is an open book to all that listen to the Fitz Dog Radio Podcast & that is an indication of the style that he, like fellow comedian Louis C.K., convey. Perhaps, he isn’t as famous as many others, but as you will come to find out he is much more relevant than just about any other comedian out there.

It was my privilege to have Greg agree to the Twitterview & while his answers were a bit snarky & succinct they still convey a seriousness behind the comedian.

Me: You seem to have the only show/podcast out there that talks about the actual craft of comedy in a serious way. Are you trying to convey a realistic view of what it is actually like to be an “On the road constantly” comedian?

Greg: I’m on the road about 25 weekends a yr. Any less I don’t grow. Any more I start believing I am Henny Youngman.

Me: You’re the guy that makes people funny, having written for Louis CK, Cedric the Entertainer, Ellen Degeneres & Wanda Sykes to name a few, yet super stardom has eluded you. Is that by design so that you can have some semblance of a normal life or is there an uncomfortability that comes with being in front of a camera that makes you more inclined to write?

Greg: I wasn’t aware that stardom was my goal. I was just trying to be a good comedian. Stardom seems kind of lame.

Me: You speak quite frankly about your past addiction to alcohol. Being an Irish/Catholic, New Yorker do you feel that it is just a way of life there or do u feel people have their own choices? Kind of a nature vs. nurture ques. It seems like many comedians suffer from substance abuse is that a product of the road.

Greg: There’s never been a strategy; just mindlessly scrambling in an Irish rage. So far so good.

Again check out Greg’s website here & presales of his book are here. Follow me on Twitter & Facebook for regular updates & lively discussion.