MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE SIX

     I've always been attracted to different types of music.  Sometimes it can be difficult to tell because I mostly listen to rock music so you'll just have to trust me.  I tend to feel that labeled genres are just a business creation anyway.
     When I was about 11 years old, the USA Network started airing a program on Fridays and Saturdays called "Night Flight."  For awhile this was the ONLY place I could watch music videos as MTV was not yet available in my area .  However, this show wasn't just about music videos.  They aired old movies like "Reefer Madness" and W.C. Fields classics mixed in with experimental short films and full length concerts.  This was also the first time I realized that there was new music that wasn't being played on my local Top 40 station.  And some if it was actually good.
     One of the first videos that caught my eye was called "Close (To The Edit)" by something called The Art of Noise.  The music (as well as the unique imagery) was unlike anything I'd ever heard up to that point in my short life.  The group made their sounds by sampling voices, musical instruments and and everyday natural and machine made sounds and then 'manipulating' them through a new device called a Fairlight synthesizer.  I've been a huge fan ever since.
     Their second album, 1986's "In Visible Silence" has just been re-released in deluxe edition form.  I'd listened to their first album , 1984's"Who's Afraid of The Art of Noise?" so many times that kids my age covered their ears in fear every time I brought my boom box on the school bus for road trips.
     Since I was used to new music from my favorite artists arriving every year, I thought this group had broken up since it took them two years to make second album.  It was much later that I learned that founding member Trevor Horn had left the rest of the group and there was a bit of mess in that divorce.
     However,  I loved the second album just as much as the first (at least at the time).   They had even decided to cover an old classic in "Peter Gunn" (which was already a live staple for Emerson Lake and Palmer)  and invited guitar legend Duane Eddy to play on it.  This would be the first time I would actually hear one of their songs on my local Top 40 radio station.  And it wouldn't be the last.  Just a few months later they re-worked one of the albums' tracks "Paranoimia", adding some spoken word computer generated magic from Max Headroom (voiced by Matt Frewer).  This version would be their first US Top 40 single.
     This new deluxe edition contains several remixes of their singles and also B-sides and other rarities.  It's only available as an import and I wouldn't hold your breath waiting on a stateside release so if you're an AON fan, get it while you can.
      
    

MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE FIVE

     Saturday Night Live.  Those three words can conjure up many sounds and images.  Some strange; some fantastic; some outright pathetic.  Most people who have been fans at any point in time choose to prefer the ones that please them.  Almost like life itself, it seems.  People tend to remember 'the good years' over and over again.  I'm not going to rain on your parade unless your parade happens to be the 2016-17 season.  If so, you may want to move on or you might want to read this anyway.
     Statistics say that ratings for this past year were the best in 23 years.  It's not hard to figure out why.  Yes, there were some good hosts and Dave Chappelle made his long awaited TV return as well.
However, our current President had something (or pretty much everything) to do with this upturn in viewers.
     Alec Baldwin was pretty much a cast member this past year.  Playing the candidate and then President Trump seems to be a thrill for him and he certainly does gets some good digs in at Trump's expense.  However, the political humor can be a bit scattershot at times and even a bit tiring.  Making media figures like Lester Holt and Jake Tapper into major players in sketches can be tricky and sometimes irrelevant to someone who watches these programs as reruns ten years down the road.
    Kate McKinnon was perhaps the major cast member this year.  As Hilary Clinton and Kellyanne Conway, she channeled the anger and madness of this past election cycle.  However, opening the show with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" twice?  Enough already.
     The other cast members performed respectably but none rose to McKinnon's manic level.  I still don't understand why they let Jay Pharaoh go at the end of last season when he did such great celebrity impressions.  With all of the talk of the lack of cast diversity, this still boggles my mind.
It's very apparent that with the ongoing political correctness entering the comedy world,  the field on which to create laughter keeps getting smaller and smaller.  Sketches done twenty years ago would certainly offend more people today.  Why?  The ability to be laughed at seems to be shrinking.  Just ask the President.  On second thought, please don't.
     The area of dark comedy on the program also keeps getting more and more rare.  Why?  It's hard to say but I think it's more difficult to get the tone just right and therefore gets pushed aside in the course of the show's hurried weekly production schedule.  The filmed "Dead Poet's Society" parody with Fred Armisen was one the best examples of a good dark sketch this past year.
     Because of pressure to keep ratings up, the musical guest lineup keeps getting less and less daring ae well.  Were there any actual rock bands and/or performers over 50 years old last year?  I don't remember one.  The precious 18 to 49 demographic simply wouldn't stand for it.  To use an oft quoted Presidential lament, 'sad.'
     Finally,  the Weekend Update portion of the show seemed to be the most improved part of the show.   Jost and Che have finally found a natural give and take feel to the segment.  Again, however, the political part of the bit threatened to drag things down at times.  Believe or not, there are other things happening in the world.  
      My final words.  Dare to be a little less proud and a tad more silly.  It still can be done.  Melissa McCarthy's take on Sean Spicer was perfect to me.

MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE FOUR

     This next musical recommendation is somewhat bizarre coming from someone like me.  But to understand its significance and beauty to me, I might have to provide a bit of backstory here.  In 1992,  I suffered what I would kindly refer to as a nervous breakdown.  I can't say I didn't see it coming but it would still rate as a bit of a shocker.  However, my mental state started to effect my physical well-being and things were generally not going as planned for me.
     A few months later, I was in a record store in Bozeman, MT (don't bother looking for the place;  it's long gone) and was thumbing through the titles and suddenly I heard music that literally was speaking to me.  It was sonically appealing and the lyrics were very striking to say the least.  It was as if every song was a chapter in a book and every chapter sparked my interest exponentially.  Finally,  my very shy self tip toed up to an employee and asked what the heck this album was.  The employee said "This is the first CD by a new band called Dream Theater.  Never heard of 'em but we're supposed to play it."  And with that ringing endorsement I walked over and picked up a copy to purchase and then slowly put it back down when I saw the $18.98 price tag.  This was a lot of money for a college student to pay for anything (including most modes of transportation) and so I left feeling disappointed that I might not hear that music again because it certainly was not the type of genre that any of my local radio stations would play at that time.  On my way out of town,  I decided to stop at a pawn shop to ogle musical instruments I also couldn't afford.  When I was there,  I noticed they sold used CDs and the very first one I saw was this exact CD which was titled "Images And Words."  I jumped at the $6.00 price tag and bought it.  Twenty-five years later I'm still amazed by it.  But since then I've learned a few things.  First,  this was not the 'first' CD by Dream Theater.  However, it was the 'first' CD with their current vocalist James LaBrie.  Second,  this album was a loosely conceptual story about a friend of the band who was losing his battle with a horrible disease and the lyrics were very blunt but also very hopeful.  The vocal samples were cool too.  Third, being a amateur pianist, I was floored by the amazing keyboard playing and lyrics of Kevin Moore (who left the band after their 3rd release 'Awake' in 1994).
     To this day,  I only own their first three albums.  I have owned others at times but could never 'get into them.'  And, yes, I know this is not exactly an underrated album as it has gone Gold by the RIAA.  But what I do know is every time I listen to it,  my mind opens up to endless hope and possibilities.  Is that alright with you?

FAMOUS LAST WORDS?

I plan on continuing the blog as long as I'm spiritually, physically and mentally able.  These three areas can cause problems in my writing style which can lead to long periods of time during posts but, rest assured, I'm always thinking about this space somewhere on the side of the road on the information superhighway.
Until next time.....

MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE THREE.

     Okay, so I'm switching things up a bit in honor of April Fool's Day.  Instead of underrated music I'm shifting my focus to a group of TV specials and books from the mid-1980s.  Martin Mull has never really found his niche as an entertainer and I think this is because he really doesn't care if he is multi talented as an actor, painter and musician.  He's just one of those people that are great in 'measured doses.'  Yes, 'Fernwood 2-Night' and just about everything else he has done are now cult classics and one of these 'classics' is a trilogy of TV specials he did for HBO with the title "The History Of White People In America."  All of these specials where directed by Harry Shearer and all three starred Mary Kay Place and Fred Willard as your typical married American suburban WASP couple.  Some of these specials also starred greats like George Wendt,  Michael McKean and Jack Riley.  Mull usually plays himself as the interviewer and questions these people about politics, religion, culture etc.  There also is some hokey drama played out that surely is a parody of the PBS cinema verite series of the 1970s, "The Loud Family."
     These specials are done in the 'mockumentary' form although these feel a bit more scripted (by Mull and friends) than the usual Christopher Guest variety.  Two books on the subject were also printed and I seem to recall Mull having a strange fascination with the white man's love of Sans-A-Belt slacks (one of the first makers of slacks with the elastic waistband).  With just about anything Mull does, there is a very dry wit that some people might just not get but I loved these specials as a teen ( and still do).
     All three specials are available on the treasured VHS format at yard sales and church book swap benefits.  I think Mull would heartily approve.

R.I.P. TO (OUR YEARLY SUBSCRIPTON OF) ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

     My Father and I were really excited about this new magazine called Entertainment Weekly that was launching in early 1990.  My old man had a subscription (is this now an obsolete term?) to Sports Illustrated that advertised this new mag and we both thought it sounded fantastic.  Well, now it's 2017 and the fascination is definitely over.  When it started, I thought the reviews of TV, Film, Music and Books were very insightful and the in-depth articles about behind-the-scenes information about artists and various looks at how these forms of art are made were wonderful.  The editors (I'm guessing) also made a somewhat controversial decision to publish an end-of-the year issue with not only the "Best Of" articles but also had several pages devoted to the people in front of and behind the scenes in all entertainment fields who had succumbed to the (then) death sentence of AIDS during the previous year.
     My college years, which lasted from 1990 to 1995,  would have been so more much more boring without these issues arriving in the mailbox every week or so.  The writers turned me on to TV, music, film and books that I had no idea even existed.
     Over the years, the writers changed and the articles become shorter while the pictures and increasingly worthless "Best Of" lists become even larger, eventually edging out real entertainment news content in favor of a more exploitative 'who's maybe doing this movie' or even 'who's sleeping with what' types of stories that I'm guessing the kids today go ga-ga about.
     Of course, online sources of true entertainment news are so numerous now that I just won't count them for you (It's 3267).  So, yes, after 27 years, your Father and I believe it's time that you leave the nest and start being read (or looked at) by other people.  You'll thank us later.

MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE TWO

     I hoped the one viewer who read my last post enjoys this one just as well.  In this post,  I'm talking about overlooked albums and this one is a bit of a head scratcher.  In 1997 Marcy Playground had one the most played (er, overplayed) songs of the year that wasn't about The Titanic.  "Sex And Candy"  was a laid back and mostly acoustic ode to underage women that caught fire on radio.  What was interesting is that the self titled album that spawned the monster was originally released through the EMI main label but just weeks after its release the label went tits up and most of the releases on the label were 'set free.'  However,  the label re-released the album on the Capitol imprint and kept promoting the song and came out a winner.  The bands' 2nd release for the label is a different story.
     In 1999, the band released "Shapeshifter" and not without a bit of controversy.  The cover art by Mark Ryden was also selected to be the cover art on the then upcoming release by Butthole Surfers.  There was a bit of bitching between the two camps but MP won out and the painting went on their release.....which was totally ignored by everyone everywhere.  Why?  Maybe it was the "Sex And Candy" burnout or the fact that it was a totally different and superior album.  Leader John Wozniak wasn't too pleased with the outside production on the 1st release and most of the songs were in the same laid back vein.  So for "Shapeshifter" Wozniak took control of the production and amped up everything.  The songs themselves sound raw and direct.  They have an almost demo-like sound to them that is very alive.  "It's Saturday" ,which was the 1st single, set the tone with the tongue-in-cheek lyrics about a STD caused by a 'girl with New Jersey hair.'  "All The Lights Went Out" is a beautiful and feedback laden love ballad.  "Wave Motion Gun" is a bizarre but great anti-drug tune supposedly based on Wozniak's former addiction issues.  "Rebel Sodville" pays homage to some of the louder Neil Young and Crazy Horse workouts.  My favorite song "Pigeon Farm" is so gleefully weird that I've probably played it a few thousand times.  Whereas the self-titled effort was good but uneven, every tune on this record is a winner.
     Sadly, this album is out-of-print but easily found on this 'series of tubes.'  If you like loud guitars and truly original lyrics, buy this one.