Fayrewether Halloween Show

In 1984, some friends and I celebrated Halloween by attending a special show by local Cleveland heroes Fayrewether at the Phantasy Theater in Lakewood, Ohio. General Admission tickets were a mere four bucks and I knew that, if I got there early enough, I could get a nice close spot to see the show and shoot some photos of what was probably Cleveland's most visual rock band.

For anyone unfamiliar with Fayrewether, the band emerged in the mid 70s, spearheaded by the wonderfully theatrical Paul Fayrewether. They quickly became known as a prog(ressive) rock cover band with sets filled with songs by Genesis, Peter Gabriel solo, Jethro Tull, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and David Bowie. Although the latter two aren't necessarily "prog", their music certainly lent itself to theatrical stage productions. Not content to remain purely a cover band, they also regularly mixed original music with songs of the aforementioned artists.

As a big fan of those artists, I became a Fayrewether fan in high school (1978-81) and saw them numerous times, mostly at Cleveland-area bars in the early 80s when I was old enough to get in. This 1984 Halloween extravaganza, though, was an ideal performance situation for a band with such a fantastic visual presence. Although they had done some touring in the midwest and opened for some bigger bands now, this was the pinnacle of their performances for me at the time. They did not let me down!

My ticket stub atop an early Fayrewether 7" single

 

The opener was a "band" called The Earthtones, which were actually life-size marionette-style puppets, most operated by ropes from above, although the "lead singer" was operated from within a large box disguised as a kind of throne. I remember many of us thought the music was actually coming from Fayrewether, either pre-recorded or backstage. I don't think we ever found out. The set (for the entire evening) was designed by Jim Henderson, who has designed costumes for Cleveland-area haunted houses and has also helped create many of the costumes that Paul Fayrewether wears during shows. Irrespective of the technical details, it's safe to say that The Earthtones definitely set the right mood for a Halloween show.

You should be able to click on any image in this post to enlarge it. Fair warning, though: I shot these on my trusty Minolta X-700 (a gift from my parents when I was in high school) and, because I knew this was going to be a low light situation with a lot of movement, I was shooting at a very high ISO with "fast" film in the camera. (Kodak CF 1000, according to the negative strips.) This is simply to say that the photos here -- scans from my original prints -- are pretty grainy. I'm pleased with what I've got, though, especially when you consider these are almost 40 year old photographs from a college kid who only knew enough about photography at the time to be dangerous.

Okay, I'll stop rambling and get on with the photos. I would like to give a very grateful shout-out to my younger self for writing song titles on the backs of most of my prints. After this much time, I might have remembered what a few of the songs being performed were, but not likely most of them. 

All I wrote down here was "opening song"

 

"Dance On A Volcano" (Genesis)

"Always" (a Fayrewether original?)

"Chi-Town Shuffle"

"Shock the Monkey" (Peter Gabriel)

"Love My Gun"

Gary Simmons (bass) and Paul Fayrewether

Jeff Hutton (keys) and Geoffrey Moore (guitar)

Gary Simmons (bass) and Kevin Hupp (drums)

"Aqualung" (Jethro Tull)

"Dodo / Lurker" (Genesis)

"Dodo / Lurker" (Genesis)

"Everything's O.K." (apocalyptic Fayrewether original)

"Supper's Ready" - flute intro to "Apocalypse in 9/8" (Genesis)

"Supper's Ready" - Finale: "The New Jerusalem" (Genesis)

Encore: Gary Simmons' bass intro to "I Go Swimming" (Peter Gabriel)

Encore: "I Go Swimming" (Peter Gabriel)

Encore: "I Go Swimming" (Peter Gabriel)

 One more ticket stub shot, this time on the back cover of Fayrewether's 7" single for "Everything's O.K." from 1981. Vince Broncaccio had been replaced by Kevin Hupp on drums in 1983 but, otherwise, pictured is the band we saw.

 

CREEM Magazine - October 1980

I've never been much of a metalhead, but I was so obsessed with CREEM at this point that it didn't matter to me if they were doing a metal special. I still needed this issue. Take a look at some of the tropes and treats offered here 40 years ago... 

(If you click on any of the photos it should enlarge them to full screen.)

Reviewed in this issue:

• The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue
• Roxy Music - Flesh+Blood
• T-Bone Burnett - Truth Decay
• Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (the melting cover art)
• Jackson Browne - Hold Out
• X - Los Angeles
• Bob Dylan - Saved
• Kiss - Unmasked
• Phil Lynott - Solo In Soho
• Jeff Beck - There and Back
• Mitch Ryder - Naked But Not Dead
• Judas Priest - British Steel

Also, 

• Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
• Blondie (book) by Lester Bangs

Some choice albums released in October 1980:

• The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
• Talking Heads - Remain In Light
• Bruce Springsteen - The River
• U2 - Boy
• Prince - Dirty Mind
• The Clash - Black Market Clash
• Rockpile - Seconds of Pleasure
• John Martyn - Grace and Danger
• Joe Jackson - Beat Crazy
• Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark - Organisation
• INXS - INXS
• Killing Joke - Killing Joke
• The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro 

CREEM Magazine - September 1980

40 years ago, I was 17 years old and had just started my senior year of high school. I wasn’t a terrible student, but was definitely more interested in music and friends than my classes at that point. As such, it’s probably safe to say that I spent more time listening to records and reading rock magazines than textbooks. CREEM was one of my favorites of the latter. Check out the musical pulse according to CREEM in September of 1980! You should be able to click on any photo to enlarge it to full screen.

 

 

 

 

Some new albums reviewed in this issue:

• Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

• Alex Chilton - Like Flies on Sherbert

• Alice Cooper - Flush the Fashion

• The Kinks - One for the Road

• Buzzcocks - A Different Kind of Tension

• Devo - Freedom of Choice

• Magazine - The Correct Use of Soap

• Paul McCartney - McCartney II

 

Choice albums released in September 1980:

• Gary Numan - Telekon

• Kate Bush - Never For Ever

• XTC - Black Sea

• Simple Minds - Empires and Dance

• David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

• John Cougar - Nothing Matters and What If It Did?

• Oingo Boingo - Oingo Boingo

• Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz

• Madness - Absolutely

• Stevie Wonder - Hotter Than July

• Skids - The Absolute Game

• Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine

• Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light

 

Favorite Music of the Decade

As part of an "assignment" from Bret Helm for his excellent Life On This Planet blog, I've created this list of favorite albums of the last decade, from 2010 to 2019. The biggest challenge here was that we were to choose a single album from each year as our favorites. You can check out Decade Top 10s from Bret and his various contributors, including yours truly, right here.

For some years, choosing a single album that rose above all others wasn't too much of a struggle. Other years, it felt like there was so much great music released that choosing only one album was like trying to decided which one of your children you wish to keep. Because of this, I've taken a little liberty with my own blog post and added a couple "honorable mentions" to each year. Of course, if you're interested in more than just a few titles per year, check out any of my other Front Burner posts here on this blog.

Without further adieu...

2010: Vampire Weekend - Contra
 

The best Vampire Weekend album, as far as I’m concerned. Also an album that both my wife and daughter fell in love with, and we’re all still fans to this day. Like many of the albums in the list that follows, I don’t think there's a bad track on this. They were an absolute blast in concert, as well. 

2 song suggestions for Spotify playlist (linked below): “Giving Up The Gun" and "California English"

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2010 Honorable Mentions: 

• Robyn - Body Talk
• The Books - The Way Out  

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2011: The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
 

The band takes a definitive alt-country detour here, with contributions from the likes of Peter Buck, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, and the results are absolutely delightful. I loved this band before, with their penchant for sea shanties and murder ballads, but they opened a completely different door here, boldly walked in, and immediately took charge of the room. 

2 song suggestions: "Don't Carry It All" and "This Is Why We Fight"

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2011 Honorable Mentions: 

• St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
• Tom Waits - Bad As Me  
• Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys 

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2012: Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal
 

From the moment I first heard “Little Talks” from this Icelandic band’s debut album, I was hooked. What’s odd is that I’m not a fan of some of the bands they have been compared to, like Edward Sharpe & The Magentic Zeroes or Arcade Fire. What really seemed to draw me in was the vocal interplay between singer/guitarists Nanna and Ragnar. The Nordic / pagan / nature themes to many of these songs hit a sweet spot, too. I want to live in the world they create in these songs.

2 song suggestions: "Dirty Paws" and "Little Talks"

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2012 Honorable Mentions: 

• Shearwater - Animal Joy
• Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball 

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2013: Jason Isbell - Southeastern
 

There were once three singer/songwriters in the band Drive-By Truckers. I was always most attracted to the ones by Jason Isbell, although I didn’t know who he was at the time. In 2007, he left that band to pursue a solo career, and I became a fan of the albums he was releasing. Southestern, though, is so good it’s mind blowing. One of those albums where you don’t quite understand how anyone could write songs this good. Perhaps it was his relatively newfound sobriety, but this album is a true masterpiece in any genre.

2 song suggestions: "Relatively Easy" and "Flying Over Water" 

ps. 2013 was a very difficult year for me, with spectacular albums from David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Frank Turner, Savages, Frightened Rabbit, Gary Numan, and more. Even with all that competition, I kept returning to Southeastern as my favorite album. It really is that great.

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2013 Honorable Mentions: 

• David Bowie - The Next Day
• Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
• Frank Turner - Tape Deck Heart

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2014: St. Vincent - St. Vincent
 

I first fell under the spell of Annie Clark in 2011 when I was introduced to her third album, Strange Mercy. Shortly after this delightful discovery, she and David Byrne collaborated on an album called Love This Giant in 2012. I saw them on this tour and was blown away that this (relatively) unknown artist was completely holding her own on stage with the great David Byrne. By the time she released this self-titled album, I was completely hooked on her. Not only does she seem as uniquely talented as someone like Byrne, but I now think of her as an artist as singular and visionary as David Bowie or Kate Bush.

2 song suggestions: "Birth In Reverse" and "Regret" 

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2014 Honorable Mentions: 

• Future Islands - Singles
• Glass Animals - ZABA 

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2015: Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People
 

This was absolutely the decade of Frank Turner for me. I was introduced to his magic at a 2013 show during the tour for his Tape Deck Heart album. (That album was a strong contender for my favorite of 2013 but “lost” to Jason Isbell.) Much to my delight his next album, this one, turned out to be as good or better. This guy is a folk singer with a punk aesthetic and a heart of gold. He’s one of the few artists I know that could pull off an album with a theme like this and knock it completely out of the park. Side note: If you have any reservations about the music of Frank Turner , try to see him live. He can turn a room full of strangers into a bouncing, hugging mass of best friends. It’s nothing short of magical.

2 song suggestions: "The Next Storm" and "Glorious You" 

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2015 Honorable Mentions: 

• Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space
• Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think ...

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2016: Shearwater - Jet Plane and Oxbow
 

I’ve been a Shearwater fan since I heard them being mentioned favorably for fans of latter-period Talk Talk, which I adore. This would be somewhere between their albums Palo Santo (2006) and Rook (2008). If I had any complaint about what they were doing it’s that much of it was very quiet and slow. Their sound was gorgeous, but (to me) often lacked punch. Over the course of their next two albums, I started getting my wish, with 2012’s Animal Joy being their most aggressive album to date. Somehow, Jet Plane and Oxbow managed to find the perfect balance of it all. I suspect this album will be a favorite of mine for many years to come. 

2 song suggestions: "Radio Silence" and "Pale Kings"

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2016 Honorable Mentions: 

• Savages - Adore
• David Bowie - Blackstar
• Margaret Glaspy - Emotions & Math  

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2017: Gary Numan - Savage
 

Sounding more like Nine Inch Nails these days that anything he did back in the late 70s and 80s, his 2013 album Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) prompted me to get back on board with this guy. I hadn’t heard much of his stuff since the 80s. By the time he released Savage (Songs From A Broken World) in 2017 I was completely hooked. Both are excellent, gritty, crunchy, industrial-sounding albums, but I feel like Savage has an edge to it that Splinter lacked. Seeing him on tour for this album pretty much clinched it as the standout album of the year for me.

2 song suggestions: "When the World Comes Apart" and "My Name Is Ruin"

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2017 Honorable Mentions: 

• Jason Isbell - The Nashville Sound
• The Clientele - Music for the Age of Miracles

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2018: Kasey Musgraves - Golden Hour
 

If there’s one year where I deviated most from the list I created in the year itself, it’s this one. I’m not sure I had heard much from this album by the end of 2018, but I do remember thinking that what I had heard sounded far too poppy and produced for my taste in country music. It wasn’t until further listens in late 2018 and early 2019 that I finally saw the light on this gem and understood what all the critical fuss was about. This might be a lesser achievement without Kasey Musgraves’ gorgeous voice but I understand that she also took a more major role in songwriting and her overall sound in the studio than on her two previous albums. However it worked, it worked!

2 song suggestions: "Slow Burn" and "Space Cowboy"

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2018 Honorable Mentions: 

• LOCKS - Skeletal Blues
• Frank Turner - Be More Kind  

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2019: Audra - Dear Tired Friends
 

It seems like just last week, I was putting the finishing touches on my Favorite Albums of 2019 list... Oh wait, it WAS just last week! I can’t say much has changed since then. The first album in 10 years from Audra is my favorite album in their catalog and my favorite album of 2019. If you haven’t heard it, get on that! There are nods to the kind of post-punk goth that they we’re working on 10+ years ago but everything — the songwriting, the musicianship, the production — has completely grown up and come into it’s own. Listen to it and see for yourself. You won’t regret it.

2 song suggestions: "Wish No Harm" and "Sliding Under Cars"

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2019 Honorable Mentions: 

• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
• TOOL - Fear Inoculum 

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Each of the suggested tracks mentioned above can be heard here:

Front Burner 2019

"There just isn't any good music out there any more!"  

Whenever I hear someone say that, I picture the crabby old man in my old neighborhood that was always yelling at us kids to get off his lawn. Seriously, someone might only like the same old rotation of classic rock hits, but that doesn't mean there isn't any good music out there any more. When I hear people say that, the first thing that comes to mind is that they're not trying hard enough to find the good stuff. 

The problem is that people aren't going to find anything all that interesting if they only listen to commercial radio. It's no longer designed to expand our musical horizons; it's meant to sell us things. If they keep us content by playing all the songs we already know and love, we'll stay tuned and listen to all their advertisements. The stations playing newer music are often playing pop songs designed to "hook" us so we'll stay tuned and listen to all their advertisements. (Notice the theme? That's contemporary commercial radio's raison d'être.) The trouble with the bulk of this newer and intentionally crafted pop music is that is really isn't that good, so it leaves us pining for those classics again.  

If we want to hear interesting new music, we need to seek it out. Listen to college radio, read music blogs, listen to music podcasts, peruse music magazines, and so on. Even just a bit of that activity will reveal really good music that is in your wheelhouse. There IS good music out there, and plenty of it, regardless of what kind of music you like. All we have to do is look a little beneath the surface for it. 

I lost track of how many times I heard the lead quote here used in 2019, and yet 2019 felt chock full of really great music to me. You may not like what I like and that's okay. Feel free to check some of these titles out, though, and let me know what you think. A Spotify playlist with sample tracks is linked below. Who knows, you might hear something you love as much as I do!

My 19 Favorite Albums of 2019:

19 - Jade Bird - Jade Bird

18 - The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery

17 - New Model Army - From Here

16 - Aldous Harding - Designer

15 - Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won’t Hold

14 - Gang of Four - Happy Now 

13 - Lightning Dust - Spectre 
12 - Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic 

11 - The Delines - The Imperial

10 - Mercury Rev - Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited 

9 - Negativland - True False 

8 - Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

7 - Andrew Bird - My Finest Work Yet 

6 - Portico Quartet - Memory Streams

5 - Operators - Radiant Dawn

4 - Tool - Fear Inoculum

3 - The Waterboys - Where the Action Is

2 - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen

1 - Audra - Dear Tired Friends

My favorite album of 2019 - Not only is great to hear new music from Audra, but this stuff is fresh and alive and bubbling with the kind of energy that often fades after a band’s debut. Here they are, back with their fourth album and after a 10 year absence since their third. The passion they had to record together again is evident in every groove here. Not only is it my favorite album of 2019, but it’s also my favorite in the band’s catalog. Highly recommended! 

Check out Spotify playlist with sample tracks from these albums!

 

 

 

Check out my (shorter) list of favorite jazz albums from 2019!

Looking for more great music?

Since 2014, I have been contributing my Top 10 to Bret Helm's Life On This Planet blog. He and his partner Sarah Q do a fantastic job with it! This year, they gathered 8 more friends from around the globe to contribute their lists, and the blog post contains a link to a massive Spotify playlist that is just chock full of great music. Please visit the link below to take you over to Bret & Sarah's Best of 2019 blog post! 

Life On This Planet - The Best of 2019

Enjoy!

My Favorite Jazz of 2019

I'm not a jazz connoisseur. The lifeblood of my listening day is, without a doubt, rock and pop, with various acoustic troubadours thrown around the edges. Music with words. However, I've also always been a music-first / lyrics-second kind of guy. Meaning that the first thing to grab me about the music I hear is usually not the words but the sound of the music. Good lyrics are just icing on the cake for me, most of the time.

This means that I've always had a soft spot for genres like jazz and electronic music. I don't know if it's just because more of it was on my radar this year, but 2019 felt like a really great year for numerous cool new jazz releases. At the end of most recent years, I might have two or three jazz or electronic albums that have worked their way under my skin. This year there were more than a dozen that felt notable to me.

In an effort to both document a really great year for jazz (at least for me) as well as to share some of the cool stuff I've discovered, here is my Top 10 jazz albums list for 2019. A Spotify playlist of these albums is also included here. I hope you hear something you like and, if you've got jazz favorites from this year that aren't on this list, tell me about them in the comments! My doors are always open. 

My Top 10 Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019

10 - Ezra Collective - You Can't Steal My Joy
 9 - Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom - Glitter Wolf
 8 - Ralph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, et al - Imaginary Friends
 7 - GoGo Penguin - Ocean In A Drop
 6 - Jeremy Pelt - The Artist
 5 - Kris Davis - Diatom Ribbons
 4 - Theon Cross - FYAH
 3 - Antoine Berjeaut & Makaya McCraven - Moving Cities
 2 - The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery 
 1 - Portico Quartet - Memory Streams 

Check these out! The playlist includes the full albums, but I'd like to suggest that you just shuffle play. I do that from a much larger playlist to see what will stick to my ribs, and it always seems to make for an interesting listening experience.