Rob's Rants

This is just a brain dump of random music thoughts floating around in my head. Been meaning to record them for some time.

Best artist’s name: Michelle Shocked. Don’t listen to her, but you gotta’ admit, that’s a damn good stage name.

Best album name: Motörhead – “Everything Louder than Everyone Else.” Pretty well captures the Motörhead spirit.

Motörhead bonus – best Rock & Roll quote: “If this band moved in next door to you, your lawn would die.”

Tom Dowd

Most important person in Rock & Roll that you’ve never heard of: Tom Dowd. Seriously. If you appreciate anything about music recorded after 1940 you need to know who Tom Dowd is. His Wikipedia page doesn’t even come close to doing his life and career justice. Aside from working with, influencing, and creating music with everyone important in modern music, the man also invented nearly everything important about music recording. First stereo music recording: Tom Dowd. Eight track recording: Tom Dowd. The linear sliders you see on every modern mixing board: yup, invented by Tom Dowd. Wanna’ know who got Eric Clapton and Duane Allman together in the studio to record Layla? Tom Dowd. And he mixed it and produced it too. What do Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Wilson Pickett have in common (besides greatness): Tom Dowd produced them. Oh yeah, and he worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University too. Starting when he was only 16.

Take the time to watch the most important biography/documentary in music: “Tom Dowd and the Language of Music” you will not be disappointed.

Best guitar solo: the solo Eric Clapton usually inserts into Badge by Cream. From the studio version to the live version on the Royal Albert Hall: London May 2, 3, 5, 6 2005 album this one always impresses me. I’ve seen Clapton in concert three times and I will never forget the first — in 1990 my college roommate, my girlfriend, and I drove over 100 miles across Vermont and New York State to see Clapton at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. We got there late and I got to the top of the aisle looking down on the stage just as Clapton started Badge. He rocked the solo. I’ve never been the same since. (For real music fans – yes, this was the tour on which Stevie Ray Vaughn would die later in the summer. Never saw SRV – we arrived too late.)

Best band you’ve never heard of unless you live in Pittsburgh: The Clarks. Go to the web or to iTunes and download their 2001 “The Clarks Live“ album. It’s an excellent album and a great example of a band that really needs to be heard live. The Clarks rock on that album. If you like that, and you should, I suggest following with their latest record, “Restless Days.”

Best band period: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Grace Potter is a true artist, with a creative range that I haven’t heard in years. And she has, without a doubt, the single best female voice in music today. Screw today. Maybe one of the best female voices ever. I was introduced to Grace Potter via a performance at the Boston Music Awards several years ago. The video gives me chills it is so good. Don’t believe me? See for yourself – just promise not to play it on some shitty, tinny laptop speakers.

Take note that she was 24 years old when this was recorded and this is an original composition. You name me one other 24 year-old American Idol pop star wannabe that would dare to perform an original two and a half minute a cappella piece live in front of an audience and then kick ass on a Hammond B3 organ. You can’t. Search You Tube for Grace Potter and take some time to discover her band’s range.

If iTunes is more your speed, then I recommend starting with a 5 song EP they released in 2008 called “Live in Skowhegan.” (It’s a town in Maine, dumbass.) This is a good representation of the range of their catalog up to that point. But remember, this band needs to be heard live.