Chaos In Tejas!

Hey kids, the line up for Chaos in Tejas is up on the Prank Records blog! Los Crudos will be doing a reunion. Punks everywhere - rejoice
Check it out, it’s May 15-17 in Austin, TX.

- Keri

Singer?

Well, we've all had that fantasy of being the singer in our favorite band. Admit it. We're all here thinking the same thing... No need to be timid. IF YOU COULD SING FOR ANY BAND, WHAT BAND WOULD IT BE & WHY? - We'd love to see what you have to say!

Share your story with us and we'll share our favorites on this Blog! EMAIL US and tell us something we wouldn't know otherwise!!

Worst Concert - Replies

We've received a few replies - here's our top favorites to the Participation Question below!

LOYD WROTE:

Let's go back to the dark ages, shall we?

I was in a band that was hired to play dance music for a big homecoming party at the University of Cincinnati, about 3,500 people in attendance. The "headliner" was Tommy James and the Shondells ("Mony, Mony" "Crimson and Clover" "Draggin' the Line" etc). We finished our set, which the crowd seemed to like, and the Shondells took the stage. As I passed Tommy James, who was decked out with massive rock star hair, a "Fat Vegas Elvis" powder-blue sequined jumpsuit open to the waist, and fifty pounds of pancake makeup, he patted me on the shoulder, and said, "Hang around boys, and listen to some real music."

Well, we certainly wanted to hear some "real music," so we hung around the crowd as the Shondells began the galloping riff that opens "Draggin' the Line." The intro seemed to be going on a very long time, and the band members were all looking at each other in that frantic "what the?" way. After what seemed like five solid minutes of redundant Clavinet intro, the bandstopped and left the stage.

It turns out that everything on stage was rented equipment from a local music store, the Shondells being very specific about their choice of instruments. Everything came right out of the box, had never been fired up even once, and the Shondells had blown every speaker, monitor and amp all to hell with the first ten percent of one song.

We had to get to another gig later that night, and the last thing we saw backstage, amidst the pandemonium that was brewing in the audience, was the Shondell's manager, face glowing red, trying to bribe our guitarist to rent the band some equipment. He declined, and just as the elevator doors shut tight, said to Tommy and his manager, "Hang around boys, and maybe you'll hear some real equipment."

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ERIC SAID:

I went to the Cal Jam 2 at Ontario Motor Speedway on March 18, 1978 (ironically 30 years ago today). At 3 AM the crowd broke down the chain link fence and by force we all entered the concert. It was hot and the facilities were deplorable. The sound system was bad and the seating was on the ground and far away from the speakers. The upside was Santana and Aerosmith were very good from what I could hear.

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DAN SAID:

My worst concert going experience ever was Phish's last show, Coventry. The weather was terrible, causing most the gravel roads in the concert grounds to get washed away. Vehicles were getting stuck in the mud constantly. Finally, the Vermont state police, wanting to cancel the event, urged Phish to close the gates. Thousands of ticket holders got turned away after sitting in traffic for up to 18 hours.

On a positive note this prompted many fans to abandon their vehicles on the highway and hike into the concert grounds. Some, not wanting to miss the final Phish show, walked as far as twenty miles. Not many bands have experienced that kind of devotion from their fans.

The show itself was very rough. The emotional climate created by the imminent break-up was detrimental to the bands performance. It was probably the worst performance of their careers. The traffic, the mud, the rain, the turned away fans, the band members' tears. I really wish I hadn't made the trek.

Worst Concert?

WHAT'S THE WORST CONCERT YOU'VE EVER SEEN AND WHY?

Yeah, we've all been to some bad concerts. Whether it's the band, you were fighting with your "Better Half" or you went despite being sick... Share your story with us and we'll share some of the good ones with the world, via this Blog! Sound good? EMAIL US and tell us something tasty!

Enter To WIN!

Come into either of our stores (Main or our UCF Location) and ENTER TO WIN a PAIR of TICKETS to see THE WEAKERTHANS at The Social on April 5th, 2008.

Also ENTER TO WIN a PAIR of TICKETS to see CONVERGE at The Social on April 27th, 2008.

LP COVER CONTEST!

YES! This is something some of the Park Ave CDs staffers came up with by sheer accident... LPs with nearly-life-sized body parts on the covers. Hold it up in front of yourself and try to match the appropriate body part with the rest of your body. We think the photos below pretty much sum it up...

Click on Images for a Larger View

Ok, here's where the Contest comes into play... Simply SUBMIT a photo of yourself using an LP in a similar way and let us know what LP you used!

THE BEST USE OF AN LP COVER WINS!
Well, the TOP-3 Best Submissions WIN!

THE PRIZES:
First Place wins a $20 Vinyl Gift Certificate
Second Place wins a $15 Vinyl Gift Certificate
Third Place wins a $10 Vinyl Gift Certificate

This contest ends on Monday, March 17th, 2008. Winners, and honorable mentions, will be posted upon the contests completion. Keep your eyes peeled, folks!

ps: Please don't submit the same LPs we used in the above examples...

Steve Poltz "Traveling"

If you were looking at a list of Steve Poltz’s career achievements, it’d absolutely stop you in your tracks: toured the world with his revered band The Rugburns, wrote nearly enough songs to compete with Robert Pollard, wrote “You Were Meant For Me” for Jewel, sold a tune or two to well-placed commercials, knocked audiences dead every time he picked up a guitar . . .and was considered “most influential artist of the decade” in some wacky awards ceremony in San Diego.

Now, if Poltz himself were in charge of that resume, it would likely be a list of smaller victories: trick-or-treating at Liberace’s house, meeting Elvis, being allowed to play his guitar for a living, making a children’s album, etc. And most of that might seem like minutia to the average guy, but that’s the type of stuff Steve writes about. There’s no better example of it than the eleven songs collected on his new album Traveling.

Okay, it’s important for you to know that any record with Poltz at the helm can be a bit predictable - and as a huge fan of his, I mean that in the most loving way possible. His earlier releases with The Rugburns started out as quirky tunes that didn’t stray too far from your average wacky coffee house singer-songwriter stuff, and when the namesake eventually turned into a fully fledged band, the ensuing albums - Mommy, I’m Sorry and Taking The World By Donkey - often sounded like your run-of-the-mill bar band, albeit one with a much better penchant for off-kilter lyrics and melodies than you’d expect. And of course, the ‘Burns were at their best in a live setting - beer-soaked shows that could often push the four-hour mark, filled with enough crowd favorites (”I Want To Learn About Love”, “Dick’s Automotive”, “The Ballad Of Tommy & Marla”) to make the punters happy, but also littered with enough unexpected covers (”Little Red Corvette”, “Waterfalls”) to make even the most casual fan of music in general stand up and take notice of what these guys were up to. Thanks to the energetic live shows and inexcusably catchy tunes, you simply couldn’t avoid their radio singles if you turned on a radio in the southwestern area of the U.S. during the nineties. I mean, I personally remember hearing “Hitchhiker Joe”, “Me & Eddie Vedder”, “The Fairies Came”, “I Want A War” and “Better Be Careful” being so ubiquitous at the time that my *grandmother* was actually humming them. No lie.

It looked like the band was gonna take over the world, and then . . . nothing. Poltz’s sidekick Robert Driscoll quit the band seemingly out of the blue, and next thing you knew, Steve embarked on an under-the-radar solo career that saw him effortlessly blowing away every audience he came in contact with, yet producing a stream of uneven and often confounding records. 1998’s One Left Shoe was chock full of good songs, but often moved at the pace of an injured snail on downers. There were albums that followed which were solely recorded on answering machines, a few live albums, and one album that almost completely delivered on all of the promise Poltz had shown as a songwriter/performer - 2003’sChinese Vacation And while all of the songs on the latter album were uniformly phenomenal - with some undeniable classics thrown in, like “Friendly Fire”, “I Killed Walter Matthau” and the glorious title track - it didn’t set the world on fire. Few outside of The Cult Of Steve heard it, and it wouldn’t be out of the question for a newcomer to look at the already-dated production on his show stopping cover of TLC’s “Waterfalls” and wrinkle up their nose. I only say that out of sheer exasperation and confusion, clutching at straws and wondering why this guy hasn’t yet been crowned “troubadour of the millennium” or something. It’s unreal.

Well, finally, he’s dropped not just his best album in years, but the ultimate Steve Poltz album. It’s called Traveling, and it plays just like the album that he’s been working towards his whole life. There’s a lot to love here, and I couldn’t be more honored to tell you all about it. Here’s what you’ve got:

First off, the packaging is out of this world. Traveling comes in an oversized case that looks like a mini-gatefold LP. There’s also an in-depth booklet/passport full of not only production notes, but also a list of things that Steve has accomplished in his lifetime and a few photos of him as a kid. I’ve gotta admit that I’ve never seen this kind of layout, and I was pretty impressed. And remember, this is coming from a guy that usually isn’t bowled over by art layouts unless it’s handmade.

Secondly, we’ve gotta talk about this production. Billy Harvey recorded the record, and a cat by the name of Lars Gorlandson mixed it. Thank god they did, too. Instead of taking the predictable singer-songwriter route of just committing the songs to tape with a dry, yet intimate feel . . . these guys helped Poltz make his most relevant, in-your-face and layered album to date. The first two songs tell the tale best: “I Think She Likes Me” opens with a minute or so of atmospheric layers of acoustic guitars before a single word is uttered, and the build-up in “Rain” is the best usage of multi-tracking you’ll hear this side of Broken Social Scene.

Thirdly, that brings us to the songs themselves. Steve’s never delivered a set this air-tight on even his most unbelievable albums. Uncompromising at every turn, the aforementioned opener “I Think She Likes Me” finally hits the chorus around the two-minute mark, and you’re waiting for the second verse to churn out it’s magic, but . . . poof! The song is over before you
know it. A similar mindfuck occurs during “Rain.” It has one of the few false endings I’ve ever heard that didn’t make me yell at no one in particular for the artist’s usage of silly songwriter tricks to make you think a song is cooler than it actually is. Nope, it actually works as an effective tool to bring the swirling tune back to some kind of normalcy, while also helps move the album back into quirkier territory like “What Would Ghandi Do?”.

Now’s a good time to point out that Poltz can turn a lyrical phrase like nobody’s business. The chorus to the aforementioned “Ghandi” goes something like this: “Holy rollers clutching bibles / Turn water into moonshine like good disciples”. Okay, yeah... religious confusion is nothing new, and neither is pointing out the hypocrisy of (insert organized religion here). But have you ever heard anyone boil it down so perfectly in just two lines without resorting to a dark melody, driving their sinister point into your skull? I didn’t think so, and Steve’s real coup with the track is keeping the song just up tempo and sing-songy enough to give the listener a real “I’m kinda kidding but I’m really not kidding” nudge in the ribs.

After the first three tracks, the album can be divided into three definable groups: break-up songs, Steve’s life story, and the
unclassifiable. The first group is understandable, as the writing of Traveling took place as one longtime relationship ended and a new one began - which is presumably covered in the funky “I Believe” - but man, when he bridges the topics? Forget it. In “Haters Union”, he’s alternately talking about the lack of contact between a lost love and his old band... and his take on The Rugburns? “We were kinda funny / Like the Smothers brothers.” Genius.

Steve tackles his autobiography quite effectively in the sparse “Brief History Of My Life.” And as far as the unclassifiable songs go? Well, “Serve Me My Food” is delivered in a quiet and unexpected falsetto, while “Street Fighter’s Face” may just be the most depressing song I’ve ever heard in my life. The latter is the story of a soldier in Iraq that loses some limbs, and eventually his family and friends. No lyrical twists, no hope . . . just telling it like it is with an attention to detail that will make you squirm in your seat.

Traveling is all over the place on paper, but it plays through as one unified whole. It’s a fucking masterpiece of the genre, and it truly has to be heard to be believed. It’s not a one listen deal, either. Extra aspects become clearer with each play, but the songs are catchy and interesting enough that anyone would likely restart the album as soon as it ends anyway.

I’m not mincing words here: you absolutely need to hear Traveling by Steve Poltz.

- Marc

Jose Gonzalez

Alright, so we had Jose Gonzalez in our store on Saturday, March 1st, 2008. And, honestly, if you missed out, well, shame on you! You can't imagine how amazing a singer/songwriter and guitarist he truly is... Sure his recordings are beautiful and wonderful to listen to but, damn, this guy is truly one-of-a-kind! Sorry you missed out... For those of you lucky enough to have been there... he was totally amazing right?! WOW!


click image for larger version

In this photo is Jose Gonzalez with store friends Matt Nelson and family!

Joe Jackson "Rain"

Let’s get it out of the way: I’m a Joe Jackson fanatic. I own pretty much all of his records, even the “difficult” ones. I often get annoyed that the average music fan only knows him for “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” and “Steppin’ Out” when genius works like “Awkward Age”, “Man In The Street” and “One To One” sit without being heralded as some of the best compositions of the last fifty years. I also get a tad annoyed at Ben Folds fans not readily admitting that the guy has been ripping of Joe’s catalog and sound - possibly unwittingly - for the duration of his career.

With all of that being said upfront, I’m not under any delusions that Mr. Jackson changed the face of music or anything. It’s more like music changed the face of Joe Jackson, and thanks to him, the more astute fan who looks beyond a simple greatest hits album has access to some really wonderful albums that literally touch on every style of music you can think of. Want some angry young man doing proto-punk? Pick up a copy of I’m The Man and wonder what the hell all the fuss over My Aim Is True was all about. Need a swing fix? Give 1981’s Jumpin’ Jive a shot and see where the big band resurgence of the ’90s really took root. If you want some classical compostions, you can always look toward Will Power and Symphony No. 1. And it goes on, whether you want to hear some dub, bossa nova, salsa, or good old fashioned rock and roll.

Joe has been road-testing the songs from Rain for the better part of three years, and I’ve seen early reports of this album calling it a “return to form.” It isn’t, and that’s because the guy never lost the plot. He just wasn’t always willing to smile for the camera. Dude likes to write whatever he’s in the mood to play, expectations be damned. But really, if you wanna get technical, 2003’s Volume 4 not only reunited the original lineup of the Joe Jackson Band, but was also his most consistently brilliant set of tunes since Big World back in 1986. Does Rain continue that trend of harkening back to the Joe Jackson sound of yesteryear while retaining the forward thinking integrity that’s earned him such a rabid cult following? Sure, why not?

Seriously. There are really no bad Joe Jackson records. There are only Joe Jackson albums that the listener doesn’t understand yet. And this one is just peachy on the first, fifth and seventeenth listens. Rain sees Joe focusing on his piano, while his original bassist and drummer - Graham Maby and “Desperate” Dave Houghton, respectively - don’t overplay one bit, instead serving the songs’ needs in a respectful manner.

On Rain, you’ll find uptempo winners like “Invisible Man” and “Too Tough” right off the bat, but it’s the more melancholy stuff that resonates best. “Wasted Time” is a great example, with its superb utilization of Joe’s underused falsetto and a stop-start chorus that keeps you guessing. You’ll also dig the extended jazzy workouts that bookend yet another falsetto marathon called “The Uptown Train”. The hardcore fans will recognize “Citizen Sane” from recent bootlegs, and they’ll be happy to know that the
song really benefits from the rhythm section here, whereas Joe tried to express the snarky anti-drug du jour sentiments with a solo piano reading as recently as 2005 . . . and it simply wasn’t as effective. The total highlight of the record for this listener is the high energy thumper “King Pleasure Time”. I don’t have a good reason for this, either. As soon as that song kicks in, I’m chair-dancing like crazy.

Joe Jackson has made another great record. It’s called Rain. It’s highly enjoyable, and you won’t even notice that there’s not a single electric guitar over the albums forty-seven minute running time. It’s just a really, really good, solid collection of songs. Now it’s just a matter of getting it in the ears of those that aren’t aware of Joe’s compostional power. . .

- Marc