Increasing Signs Of My Aging & Domestication

While I Sit here waiting for Fed Ex to deliver a much needed package wth a key component to restoring my laptops operating system I use a different box keyboard whose spacebar issticking. Thiscauses most all the wordsI typetojumbletogether andbecomeillegible.

This in turn creates further frustration and makes me ponder world affairs, voting in Today's California election, the prospects of what awaits us in musicon this new release Tuesday, and ever more Increasing Signs Of My Aging & Domestication.

While I'm no John McCain, I have noticed a pattern of old man-itis creeping in.

Take Sunday For Example :

A Friend Offered To Get Me In Free To An Outdoor R.E.M Concert At The Greek Theater in Berkeley... with free beers included.

I opted out to go grocery shopping & buy potting soil at the local garden center. I just imagined it wouldn't be as intimateas the time I wasin aposse that woke Mike Mills up at his house in Athens and had his wife make homemade bloody marys, Or having drinks with Peter Buck or Scott McCaughey at bars in SF.

Maybe my reluctance was due to earlier readinga snarky review of the previous day's show that said the crowd was 80's retro refugees worshipping Stipe who looks like a cancer patient, (but when he takes his hat off, it looks like it's in remission).

Being an oldman, who bought the Radio Free Europe 7" single becauseof a review in Trouser Press before I'd ever heard it,I would be wise to stay away... I suppose'd I'd take the band's advice and stay home becuase living well really is the best revenge.

From the 2008 R.E.M release Accelerate

R.E.M - Living Well Is The Best Revenge

R.E.M - Houston ( Accelerate version )



Fuck the crowds though...I suppose despite themarketing putsch, I'd rather be listening to tracks I downloaded from the Murmur tour from an old R.E.M set in Toronto, but kids today uh, they like the Akon.

Here's a mash up...

Akon vs R.E.M -Smack That Religion


On Saturday: I was invited to a warehouse party at the same location where I had a great, pleasantly debauched timeon the last visit I made. Plus on this paricular occasion, my pal's band was playing their last show, and I had no good reason not to attend. Instead, I went out for a dinner at a quiet Mediterranean-Turkish joint in Alameda and drank vino, afterwards I watched a Chritian Slater movie from Netflix.


A week or so before I was at a big outdoor rock festival thang with backstage access and I hung out with kids instead of Hollywood hoohahs and left at dusk before the last beers were finished in the hospitality tent...

Last Week: I flaked on attending a bowling party with some hot chicas including the band Ladytron who were celebrating their new album Velocifero...

Ladytron - Runaway



This week's new release tuesday sees the world getting a chance tograb some Daptone 45 collections in digital form. as well as some key reissues of classic jazz releases from the Riverside label.

All these remastered reissues have the original & new liner notes from the now 85 year old producer Orrin Keepnews, the man behind the legendary Riverside & Milestone labels...

COLEMAN HAWKINS: The Hawk Flies High (1957),

Orrin's commentary (from his new liner notes):

"Before [Coleman] Hawkins, the tenor saxophone-which has come to be one of the basic instruments of jazz-simply did not exist, a fact that would be disputed by neither Lester Young nor Ben Webster-his most prominent immediate successors-nor by Sonny Rollins or John Coltrane or anyone you might choose to put near the head of the line thereafter. This was not my only studio experience with Hawkins, although it was the only opportunity to deal with him strictly on his own terms, which is certainly the only appropriate way to approach a great artist."

SONNY ROLLINS: Freedom Suite (1958),

Orrin's commentary (from his original liner notes):

"Because Sonny Rollins is as passionate, talented, multifaceted and variable as this album (and many others over his many years of activity) would lead you to believe, I am glad to be able to say that this remarkable artist remains one of the greatest and most creative of all tenor saxophone players and improvisers, and that he also happens to remain a valued friend."

Sonny Rollins - The Freedom Suite


NAT ADDERLEY: Work Song (1960)

Orrin's commentary on this album that featured Wes Montgomery (from his original liner notes):

"There are two very good reasons why this album, which at this writing is just a couple of years short of being a half-century old, remains one of my warmest recording memories. Undoubtedly the more important reason is that this really represents the coming of age of Nat Adderley, a man I will always consider among the most adventurous and intelligent players and leaders I have ever worked with. But to step back and evaluate this album in a very personal way, it is half of what must be one of the most complicated and most rewarding weeks of recording activity I have ever experienced."

WES MONTGOMERY: Incredible Jazz Guitar (1960)

Orrin's commentary (from his new liner notes):

"I began constructing the 1960 definitive presentation of [Wes] Montgomery by recognizing the need to keep things as clear-cut and uncomplicated as possible. There were at least three unique aspects to his performing style: he played with his thumb, never using a pick. And his solos almost invariably included two elements routinely referred to as 'impossible'-his use of octaves and of pianistic block chords. Self-taught (his first 'lesson' had involved heavy listening to Charlie Christian records) and never able to read music notation of any kind, he somehow possessed an unfailing command of the blues and of ballad tempo and was an impressive composer."

pssst- Bonus track from the incredible Wes Montgomery from The Complete Riverside Recordings Collection...

Wes Montgomery - Body & Soul


McCOY TYNER: Fly With the Wind (1976)

Orrin's commentary (from his new liner notes):

"Although I had been very much impressed by his work with [John Coltrane], listening to [McCoy Tyner] in New York clubs in the years that followed made me aware of how remarkably he was developing. He was, and still remains, one of the most powerful pianists I have ever heard; many years ago having learned to merge that strength with a very personal form of lyricism-an unusual, unique combination. To me, it is this linking of power and beauty-in both the writing and the playing here-that distinguishes Fly With the Wind and makes it possibly my personal favorite among the 17 albums that I worked on with this extraordinary artist during our eight years together at Milestone."

Here's an mp3 preview selectionofother Keepnews collection downloadsthat are currently available via Amazon




So anywho, my fed ex package from South Carolina has arrived and I must get back to working on about a thousand other more pressing other affairs. Like paying rent,or even voting...oooooh...

I'm old...