Chauncey and Chumley's Dad

No Holiday, the final album by The Muffs, is an absolute gem and a beautiful gift from the late Kim Shattuck. Released just sixteen days after she succumbed to ALS, it is a crowning achievement for the band and their incredible front woman. The article below, which details how the album was recorded when Kim could no longer speak or move her hands, is both heart wrenching and inspirational.

Dr. John (1941-2019)

Leon Redbone (1949-2019)

It’s very sad to hear of the passing of two great musician’s in the past few days; Dr. John and Leon Redbone. Both were a bit unusual in that they found popularity with Rock music audiences while playing music that was not necessarily rooted in Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Dr. John was always one of my favorites. Born and raised in New Orleans and influenced by the sounds of that great music city, he released his first album Gris-Gris in 1968, creating a unique sound by blending Pyschedelic Rock with New Orleans Rhythm and Blues. Adding a New Orleans Voodoo theme to his shows, his persona as The Night-Tripper was a perfect addition to the Rock and Pyschedelic culture of the late 60’s and early 70’s. He later dug deeper into his New Orleans roots and kept much of the traditional New Orleans songs alive on his albums and in his shows. As someone who has made several trips to the Crescent City, I particularly loved Dr. John’s album Going Back to New Orleans. It is a collection of cover songs from many of the great New Orleans musical artists. He was also a fine piano player. His style was influenced by the great Professor Longhair and the Doctor did the Professor proud with his talent and interpretation on the piano keys. Dr. John wrote about Professor Longhair and his other musical influences in his autobiography Under a Hoodoo Moon. It is an excellent book and written in a very open and honest style. I was fortunate to see Dr. John twice, both in Chicago. The first time was in November, 1995 at Cubby Bear Lounge. On that night, he played mostly traditional New Orleans music. He and his band were dressed in traditional Mardi Gras costumes. A year later, in December 1996, I saw him again at House of Blues. At that show, his style and musical selections was that of his Night-Tripper days. That show was opened by another great piano player, the late Leon Russell. Dr. John was a musician that brought a lot of joy to my life and I will miss him greatly.

Leon Redbone was a musician I was only into on a peripheral level, but I always enjoyed his music when I heard it. His sound was rooted in Blues and Jazz, and he particularly focused on Tin Pan Alley classics from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1970’s, he became popular in with young Rock fans after he met Bob Dylan at a Folk festival. Recognizable by his ever-present Panama hat, he was a favorite guest of some of the late-night talk show hosts in the 70’s and 80’s. While in college in the late 70’s, my friend and next-door neighbor Seed frequently played Leon Redbone’s music on his reel-to-reel. I can clearly remember listening to Diddy Wa Diddie during the late sweltering summer nights of southern Illinois.

I’m kicking off the weekend with the title track from Cuz I Love You, the fine new album by Lizzo.

I’m kicking off the weekend with a losing proposition from The Clash.

Well I think the new Smashing Pumpkins album is not too shabby. With Billy Corgan reuniting James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain from the original line up, and including Jeff Schroeder from the most recent line up, the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. has a nice sound compacted into a quick 8 songs and about 30 minutes. (So I guess maybe one can presume this is really a half-album, with Vol. 2 forthcoming.) I was a bit surprised to see a number of articles panning the album. (Particularly the one from Pitchfork, which never seems to pan any albums.) I think the key for me is that when they were at their Rock-god peak back in the early 90′s, I listened to them but thought they were over rated. Since they have put that era behind them, I found I can simply listen to them as a good Rock band and appreciate most everything they release, rather than expecting them to return to a perceived one-time greatness. I think perhaps early hard core fans set the bar a bit too high.

The article in Spin is a positive one.

I’m kicking off the weekend with a bad bad song by Chris Isaak.

I was tagged by @iariotact to pick a song for each letter in my url, then tag at least five other people. This could have been a case of really overthinking the task, so I tried to make it as spontaneous as possible and mostly go with the first songs that came into my head for each letter:

chaunceyandchumleysdad

C – Cassidy – Bob Weir

H – Hold On – John Lennon/Plastic One Band

A – Anchorage – Michelle Shocked

U – Uncle Meat (Main Title Theme and Variations)– Frank Zappa/Mothers

N – Never Said – Liz Phair

C – Come And Check Your Head – Blue King Brown

E – Exodus – Bob Marley & The Wailers

Y – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Part 1) – The Flaming Lips

A – All Things Must Pass – George Harrison

N – New Sensation – INXS

D – Debaser – Pixies

C – Country Honk – The Rolling Stones

H – Honey Bee – Stevie Ray Vaughan

U – Us And Them – Pink Floyd

M – Mannish Boy – Muddy Waters

L – (The) Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys – Traffic

E – Evol– Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Y – You’re Breakin’ My Heart – Harry Nilsson

S – Saint Dominic’s Preview – Van Morrison

D – Dissident – Pearl Jam

A – Anemone – The Brian Jonestown Massacre

D – Death Or Glory – The Clash

I am tagging @soundgrammar @thoroughly-thoreau @got-to-rise-above @positivedisplacement and @monibolis if you are into it. If not, no worries!

An unusually mellow choice to start the weekend, but I am really digging the new album by Lo Moon. So I’m kicking off the weekend with This Is It, the first cut from their self-titled debut album.

As I’ll be spending a chunk of my weekend watching the Super Bowl, I’m kicking off the weekend with Superchunk.

I’m kicking off the Christmas weekend with some Tom Perry & and The Heartbreakers.

Parquet Courts has a really cool new album out entitled Milano. It is an unusual collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi and features lead vocals by Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O. It is a very cool album, so I am going to kick off the long Thanksgiving weekend with the funky and danceable song Talisa.

Mick Jagger surprised everyone by dropping a couple of new songs this week!

Gotta Get A Grip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYw6FxEGDCY

England Lost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3CfxgXfDxo

http://www.mickjagger.com/

I’m kicking off this USA Independence Day weekend with a great American band, Creedence Clearwater Revival.

I can remember the 4th of July...

I’m kicking off the weekend with a some Garage Punk from The Netherlands courtesy of St. Tropez.

I had previously re-blogged a posting about Rolling Stones Records in Chicago. The other long-standing record store in Chicagoland is Val’s Halla Records. Just outside the city limits in suburban Oak Park. Val Camiletti had been running her shop for 45 years. The Current recently did a very nice interview with Val. The piece also includes a video of her Elvis bathroom shrine from the former local TV show, Wild Chicago.

http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2017/02/14/mary-lucia-a-chat-with-val-camilletti-of-vals-halla-records

This is also a good interview with Val from Tony Sarabia at WBEZ, recorded last year.

https://www.wbez.org/shows/morning-shift/small-biz-vals-halla-records-in-oak-park/92e243ae-e080-4f57-b000-8d3f4ead1ade

I’m kicking off the weekend by welcoming everyone to Elvis Costello’s working week!