Dave Navarro and Tom Waits make me sad. But the Headhunters make me happy.
Man, here are the good old days.
This Youtube video features an old interview with Dave Navarro, talking about coming clean from heroin. The interview is spliced into the "Been Caught Stealing" video. It's nothing new- same old
story you've heard from every ex-junkie, "BlahBlah, I didn't think I was hooked, blahblah, I puked on myself..." . But, man, this takes me back. What an impact these dudes had on me. Jane's Addiction was my coming out music (read my 2003 Lollapalooza review for more on that). THIS was art. These guys, somehow coming out of boring old L.A., spouting the same boring old L.A. wasted - life - drug - culture - transvestite - bohemian - junkpile - for - a - wardrobe schtick as a million others, to me, somehow created some of the greatest, most original, most beautiful visual and audio art ever produced. I wanted to live in that mess of candles, garbage, novena accouterments and Christmas lights, all arranged just so on Oriental rugs. This was clearly a band bringing forth what I had had in my heart for years but didn't know until they showed it to me. Ritual De Lo Habitual has to be the best-produced album of the 90s. I'm sure of it.It breaks my heart to see Dave now. I see someone who once made such original art now wearing the uniform of every other Gen X stooge. Tattoos and piercings. How very 1993.
I still think he's a great player. I think his new music sounds like all the other crap on "X-treme Radio". I just hate to see him as a trend-jumping hack. As I said, Jane's was doing what everyone else was doing but somehow made it different. I don't get that from dave now. I get Madison Avenue's version of what dave was.
I don't buy the argument that he was an originator of these trends. If the so-called alt-rock of the late 80's truly spawned today's "hip" music, it has been so inbred and distorted by marketing that it truly is a whole different animal, even if "Jane Says" gets airtime right next to any band on the "Warped" tour. I'm sure they get played on either side of a Red Hot Chili Peppers Hit.
The Chili Peppers are another perfect example of the same phenomenon. The Chili Peppers I grew up on were buck naked and (like L.A.'s David Lee Roth before them) 12 feet in the air at all times.
Riding a paisley dragon through the Hollywood hills, yeah! It was like nothing you'd ever seen before. What energy! Now, They are so watered down, flaccid and generic. Bor-ing!
I used to blame Rick Rubin. I don't find it a coincidence when a great (but not terribly popular) band dumps a truckload of money on a big-name producer and suddenly they have major rotation on Mtv and a Rolling Stone cover with every major album release. Def Leppard did it with Mutt Lange. Metallica did it with Bob Rock. Chili Peppers did it with Rick Rubin.
But then again Rick Rubin produces Slayer. You sure don't see Slayer on the cover of Rolling Stone. Do You? I really don't know. I just have to admit these bands sold out wholly on their own and producers (like cowbells) are just tools to be used for good or evil.
So what is it? Am I really that pissed off that I'm no longer 17? Last I checked it was a pretty miserable time in my life. But then that's what art feeds from, right? Cataclysm and strife?
Steve Harris
Iron Maiden's Steve Harris said it beautifully. I can't recall the exact quote, but he basically said, "Look, I can't compete with your memory of your glory years. I'm glad 'The Number of the Beast' was the soundtrack to the years where you had the most fun and least responsibility. But I've grown a lot in the last 14 years. I don't want to make another 'Number of the Beast'. I just busted my ass for a year making the best album I could. No, it's not going to make you feel like you are a teenager again. And don't you dare write it off outright because of that".Steve is a pretty bright fellow, and not a disillusioned one.
This was concerning the infamous time when Steve attempted to kill an album reviewer. in 1996 he had just been divorced, Maiden lost their very popular singer, his dad was dying and Maiden's new singer broke his leg in a motorcycle accident and had to recuperate for a year before working. They pounded out what I think was their best effort since 1984, 'The X Factor'. A Kerrang magazine reviewer simply called it 'shit' and moved on. Steve actually jumped in his car and drove right down to the magazine studio to crack the guy's head open. A man on the edge, indeed (sorry).
They may or may not make music as well as they did 20 years ago, but Iron Maiden can never be accused of following trends for the sake of improving sales. They have more integrity and strong-headedness than any "punk" band (or any other band selling the image of 'fighting the man' or 'integrity at all costs') I can think of.
Maybe it's the drugs. Maybe drugs really do enhance performance. Dave said in his video that he would think he was playing better than ever while stoned out of his mind, then hear the tape while straight and it was an embarrassing mess. But I can think of dozens of people who should've gotten out of show business the minute they stopped doing drugs: Eddie Van Halen, Robin Williams, for instance. You guys should've overdosed and gone out with dignity.
Eddie "Sad Sack" Van Halen
But nostalgia is a powerful tool in generating allegiance. I still have great affection for these people and tend to turn a blind eye to recent, lower quality material (well, not Robin Williams).
I recently went through one of the most traumatic and disappointing episodes of my life which was a failed attempt to obtain tickets to a performance by Tom that will be held in a city near me soon.
It's a long story, but I was actually able to get to the "pay for your tickets" portion of the check-out on the Ticketbastard website twice. Ticketmaster has a fairly retarded and non-user friendly E-commerce site. I spend a LOT of time on the interweb-thingy. I buy a LOT of stuff there. I am fully qualified to judge them as shitty. First, they forced you to choose an option for obtaining your tickets. They only offered one (incorrect one): Will Call (Out of the United States). They ask you to choose your country of Origin (obviously the U.S. is not given as an option in their drop-down menu). If you attempt to fix anything, the form clears and you start over.
The previous night, I logged into ticketmaster to make sure my account and card information was up to date. The second time I go to the "pay for your tickets" portion of the check-out for Tom Waits tickets, they did not offer for me to pay with the information I had on file. They only asked for credit card info. When I entered it, it read: That card is already on file-enter another one". I had apparently fallen into a data-entry form, not the pay feature. How fucking retarded. If you attempt to fix anything, the form clears and you start over.
The damn thing sold out in about 6 minutes. I almost fainted I was so angry. I'm pretty sure I could kill any Ticketmaster employee with my bare hands even now. First off, the whole "will-call only" stipulation is out of line. Here are all the rules for ticket sales for this event:
There will be no venue or box office sales for this event. 2 ticket limit. Phone or Internet Sales only. All patrons will be required to present a valid picture ID matching the name given at the time of purchase in order to receive their tickets and gain admittance to the show. Patron names may NOT be transferred once the ticket purchase transaction is complete. Will Call will begin at 4pm. Immediate entrance into the venue is required.
Great. I would love to sit in your shitty seats for 4 hours waiting for the show to begin. Now, this supposedly is to curb scalping, right? Make it a huge pain in the ass for anyone to buy tickets. God forbid you freaking work for a living and can't buy your own tickets. Ticketmaster doesn't give a shit. And the $785 paid for tickets on Ebay proves it didn't help a damn thing.
From the Ebay Seller:
I am aware of the policy for the show about picking up tickets. A friend and I both have tickets. We can only use one pair for ourselves. the venue requires entry immediately upon ticket pick-up, the winning bidder and their companion will walk in with my friend and I. I will escort one person and my friend will escort the other. Once inside, we will give you the tickets described above and we will use another set. If you win this auction, YOU WILL GET INTO THE SHOW.
Good job, assholes. Way to protect the market.
Now, why the Hell is Tom setting this up anyway? Oh, his official answer as to why he had a 2-week tour is very cute:
"We need to go to Tennessee to pick up some fireworks, and someone owes me money in Kentucky."
Well, Tom, I'm very happy that you're so much of an artist that you need to prove how much you don't need money by playing to 1/10th of the audience that wants to see you. If that's the case, why did you pay for a full-page ad in the Cleveland Free Times when the damn thing would've sold out in 10 minutes no matter how much of a secret you tried to keep it? Ego? Or were you just trying to keep the hype up? That's dangerously close to the stinky monster named "Marketing" which I would assume you are too much of an "artist" to use. You Are a 'prestige artist', right?
Now, Tom sues about six people a year because they made a commercial with a singer or voice that sounds too much like him (good thing Satchmo is dead). For a man so supposedly hell-bent on artistic integrity, I can not support these ticket sales tactics. (That link might actually go to a real TW commercial).
Well, I guess I won't go. It was only going to be the most important thing in my life. Something I had assumed I'd never have a chance to experience- like seeing Joni Mitchell, or a reunited Van Halen. Well, I guess I had my chance. This whole thing really tarnishes the other-worldly mystique I found in and adoration I had for Tom Waits. Ticketmaster is such a shitty institution. Now that shit is on Tom Waits. What a shame to see so many years of enjoyment be tainted by marketing hype and therefore money.
There are excellent artists out there who truly live for sharing their music. They prove their lack of need for money simply by losing their asses on every single tour and still getting out there as often as they can. One such band is the Headhunters.
So, Tom's first major release came out in 1973. He's made enough money in 33 years to sit on his ass on his estate in the Sonoma wine country and watch his children grow. Good for him. He doesn't have to be bothered with the rigors of touring. He can put out an album every 6 years and still be called one of the greatest "performance artists" in the world. Well, he had to perform it to record it, right? We all have the right to slow down. I'm 32. I've been a fan since 1997. I can't help but only catch his twilight years.
The Headhunters, however, are still stuck in stinkin'-ass New Orleans, God bless 'em. OK, Paul Jackson has lived in Tokyo for 25 years, but still....
Coincidentally, their first major release came out in 1973. Fronted by Herbie Hancock, they
created the fusion genre along with Weather Report, Return to Forever and a bunch of other people who were on Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" sessions. They were left high and dry by Herbie long ago, but they just kept playing, breaking up, giving up, getting back together and going back out. Percussionist Bill Summers has been on over 2000 recordings. You just keep working.I had the pleasure of seeing them at the Grog Shop just last week. What an awesome time. I saw them last year at the Beachland Ballroom. But the Beachland just isn't a great hall. It's just never a comfortable place to see a gig. It was a great show. I really wasn't ready for Paul Jackson to kick my ass all over the place like that. I'm up on my bass players, but that dude killed me. And they had the mighty Skerik on Saxophone. I actually expected more from Skerik, but he eventually heated up and it was a great show and I went home happy.
This is an aside, but as good a place as any to get this out:
I'm very happy to see the greatest jazz artists in the world finally finding a little bit of a home with the jam bands. You can see the Headhunters, Meters or Jonas Hellborg/Paul Hanson/Jeff Sipe at these festivals with 100 Greatful Dead / Phish wannabe bands (like Les Claypool). Though I think a big festival is better than a bar-tour where they would play to 15 people at a time, it validates the inaccurate view in the minds of the performers and fans of the jam bands that they are engaging in improvisational Jazz while limping along in their can't-get-out-of-'A' bullshit. Skerik has also found a home with these bands, and can bring the fans to Headhunters gigs outside of the festivals. I fully support it.
So back to Thursday's show:
Paul Jackson was out sick and they replaced him with none other than legendary Meters and
Funky Meters (not to mention Tori Amos) bassist George Porter, Jr. Wow! What a treat. George is a lesson for the instrument. Actually, the whole band is. You want to know what bass playing should really be? Just Watch George. You want to see how a percussionist really works? Just watch Bill.George Porter, Jr
And the horns! The horn players were former James Brown and JBs trombonist Fred Wesley (You know, "Breakin' Bread with my Mama, Breakin' Bread with my Papa, Breakin' Bread"!) and Kebbi Williams on sax. You hear Kebbi on Outkast recordings. Now, Skerik is awesome with his harmonized horn and does ground-breaking stuff with effects and signal processing, but these dudes just picked up horns and WAILED. All acoustic, all personality, all excitement,-Knocked-me-out! And they played for 2 hours. We didn't get out until 1am. I didn't know Kebbi Williams, but he looked to be 20 years old. I asked Bill how old his horn player was, 'cuz he was killin' but didn't look old enough to. He said "I don't know, I just met him today!"
Paul Jackson
The Grog Shop has trouble selling this kind of show. This band really still appeals more to adults and it was a Thursday night show. It wasn't an embarassingly small crowd, but it was intimate.
They had a much better turn out at the Beachland. Afterward we got to bullshit a little with the band. They were gracious with their time. Frankly, they were rather chatty, loading up their own gear (with audience members helping them). The only down point was that I bought a CD from the drummer, Mike Clark (selling from a duffel bag behind his kit). We had a long discussion to make sure I wasn't buying a CD I already had, but the CDs inside did not match the cover. It was a show I had already purchased. Oh, well. I'm happy to support them anyway-get them gas money to Detroit. When people are fighting to make a living with real art, they tend to endear themselves to me better than those who think they are gracing me with their presence. I consider it money well-spent.
Tom?~Jimm
