It’s criminal, you know, that the J. Geils Band is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And it matters for one selfish reason: there is a credibility bump that translates to dollars available on the road. Simply put, you get in, your career gets better.
So selfishly – and correctly, I might add – the Boston band needs to get in. They need to earn a spot for one main reason: so they will continue to play live as a band, and more fans (like me) can see Peter Wolf and the band blaze through the rock and blues and soul revue that they do so well.
Wolf, meanwhile, rolls right on along, all 135 pounds of him. The 70 year-old singer, who has reunited with the Geils boys as recently as last year for the opening slot on the Bob Seger tour, has his own band, and they are set to hit the road for a tour. On April 8, Wolf released A Cure For Loneliness, a followup to 2010s Midnight Souvenirs. While the previous album leaned on a rootsy, country-ish Memphis groove, the new record is a soul album, lashed with country, with the always-present Boston R&B. Plus, there is a reworked cover take on the J. Geils hit “Love Stinks”, tipped musically to bluegrass.
A couple links follow, one for the first single “Wastin’ Time”, one of the two or three best songs on the record, The second link is to a brilliant and unseen-outside-of-Boston PSA for the Boston library. It is a bit of subversive video work before it was cool for libraries and NPR to play things a bit more hip. Plus, a nice job of keeping the acting straight from the “Woofa Goofa”.
ADDENDUM: I got into a discussion at a music club one night with a friend, and we ended up trying to rank the top 5 rock and roll frontmen of all time. (Not the singer/songwriter Springsteen/Prince/Sly Stone model – frontmen, you see, can’t be known for playing instruments. They sing. They play some tambourine). I said Peter Wolf belongs on that top 5 list. May have even said he was top 3. We were drinking. I probably mentioned that if you really think about it, Wolf may be the most underrated frontman of all rock and roll time. I think we agreed on Jagger at the top, and then it got murky real quick. Freddie Mercury? Steven Tyler? Eddie Vedder? Roger Daltrey? Paul Rodgers? Jim Morrison? Elvis?
Rob Nichols
New Dan Baird Album Due September 25
Former Georgia Satellite Dan Baird and his band Homemade Sin release their new album Get Loud on September 25. As his gift, he passes along another fabulously greasy, gritty, Satellite-esque chunk of rock and roll. The title is essentially a command. This stuff sounds best cranked. “Fairground People” is a highlight. This is another good record, featuring an old recipe.
Baird has built a career out of one big hit (Keep You Hands’ to Yourself” ) and a couple smaller radio gems (“I Love You Period”, “Open All Night”). He’s had former/current Jason and the Scorchers guitarist Warner Hodges in tow for live gigs and albums for nearly ten years, and his Georgia Satellites drummer Mauro Magellan has stayed loyal to Baird, with him from the beginning of the solo career.
The new album is more of the loud Telecaster and pounding drums that Baird traffics with each record. And that’s as it should be – he does his part in keeping the smart, lyrical side of the Satellites alive, with throwbacks to The Faces, Stones, and Petty in his music.
Alas, the band spends most of its touring time in Europe, and US fans have to get by with a few of the bootleg-y live videos and scattered live albums between proper studio releases. So enjoy this blast of new, old rock and roll, best turned up loud, just like they tell you to.
Get Loud: SONGS
1. Get Loud, 2. Nothin’ Left To Lose, 3. Don’t Be Wastin’ My Time, 4. Thin Disguise, 5. A Few Of My Own, 6. County Black, 7. Fairground People, 8. Silver Little Lies, 9. A Little Bad Luck, 10. Get It Right, 11.Movin’ Right Along
VIDEO: William Clark Green
One of those tunes – and there are a growing number – that are damn fine country music songs, but country radio’s myopic, blinders-on, play-the-new-Cole Swindell-shit mentality fails to see that this is where they should go a little more often, musically.
And I think Jason Isbell would agree.
VIDEO: Wagon – "State Trooper" (Bruce Springsteen cover)
I call it one of the top 5 Springsteen covers of all time…you pick the rest.
From the Australian band Wagons (whose singer, Henry Wagons, is working on a solo record). The song has been a staple in the Wagons live set, and the video clip documents the band in Henry’s studio on Mount Martha on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, as they laid down the track completely live. The song is recorded without an overdub.
…and why I would love to hear Bruce do his own unhinged, fully electric official version of Nebraska. It would never be better than the influential demo-turned-album, but appealing because of that unattainable goal.
“STATE TROOPER” – from NEBRASKA
… Bruce lets out an unhinged scream in the original as the song fades. “I don’t know if it’s even really a song or not,” Springsteen wrote in a note to Jon Landau. “It’s kinda weird.” — as told to Rolling Stone
Read more from RS: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-bruce-springsteen-songs-of-all-time-20140116/state-trooper-19691231#ixzz3g61Bz87b
VIDEO: U2 at the Roxy in LA
In case this one slipped past your YouTube filters, U2 played and sweaty, old school show LA’s legendary 450-seater Roxy nightclub on May 28, in the midst of a 6-date run in the city. Tremendous video from the night, emanating a throwback vibe to the days when the band was scratching for fame. “I Will Follow” is a highlight.
The band wraps up a 5-night Chicago run with a show at the United Center on Thursday night (July 2).
https://youtu.be/-4oaPoZoQIM
VIDEO – Anderson East – "Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, and Forget 'Em" FAME Studio
Anderson East. Recorded in the legendary FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. A greasy, retro, horns-and-soul cut, with whiskey and asphalt vocals. Has a new album coming this summer. Recommended by the great Nick Dalton.