Kevin Montavon remembers Columbus rock n roll promoter Mary Coffmon.
Read MoreRemembering Chris Cornell - by Matt Walters
Matt Walters remembers Chris Cornell, reprinted from 2017, at the time of Chris’ death.
Read MoreThe Quarantine Blues, Mortality Division: R.I.P. John Prine - by Ricki C.
I’m not gonna belabor any points here, or take up a lot of your time with a whole history lesson, I’m just going to say this: I bought John Prine’s first record in 1971 when I was still a hippie because he was marketed as “A New Dylan.” I bought all of “The New Dylan’s” first records: Prine, David Blue, Loudon Wainwright III, later Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy, which was kind of strange because I wasn’t all that big a Bob Dylan fan by the early-1970’s.
To sum up: John Prine was a genius singer/songwriter and I’ll miss him. Here’s three videos I want to offer up as just a tiny sliver of that genius…….
John Prine isn’t the first musician we’ve lost to Covid-19 - and I fear he’s not going to be the last - but I just wanted to throw in my two cents to honor him today. - Ricki C. / 4/9/2020
Robert LeBourdais From Mother May I Auditions for Fountains of Wayne. R.I.P. Adam
Listen While You Read! Click Here For a Spotify Playlist I Put Together - Colin
The Pencilstorm office was reeling this week with news of the loss of Adam Schlesinger from Covid-19. Adam played bass and wrote songs for Fountains of Wayne, Tinted Windows and many other great projects. (Click here for WTF interview) I personally teared up numerous times diving deep back into his catalog of amazing tunes. He definitely influenced my band Watershed. We lost a true artist. Below is a Facebook post from Mother May I drummer Robert LeBourdais about his audition trying out for Fountains of Wayne. He was kind enough to let us share it here. Below that are a few of my favorite tunes Adam had a hand in. - Colin
Robert LeBourdais
My Adam Schlesinger story: In 1996 my band had been dropped by our label and we went our separate ways. I was sleeping on friends’ couches on Long Island trying to organize and move back down to the D.C. area when I spotted a classified ad (Village Voice?) by a band with a label deal looking for a drummer influenced by The Replacements and Cheap Trick: a no-brainer for me. For some reason I thought I’d give it a go even though I had already decided to move back south and try to reform my band.
Next thing I know I am on the phone with Adam talking about the music biz, and our favorite bands, etc. I remember thinking what a nice guy but hating the band name they had chosen (Fountains Of Wayne). He sent me a cassette in the mail which looked home-made as their record hadn’t been manufactured yet. I listened to the tape for a few days and went into NYC to tryout. There was one other person there before me (still pretty early in the day) but soon I was in a room about 10’ x 10’ with Adam and Chris Collingwood.
I think they wanted me to learn the first song on the tape (Radiation Vibe) but I thought the stronger songs were later on in the album so they seemed happily surprised when I called out Leave The Biker. It sounded pretty great, as if we had been playing together for a while. We also did Barbara H. and possibly Sick Day. They seemed more excited than when we began despite my douchey appearance. (I had a goatee for exactly 2 weeks in my entire life and it was during this time, dyed black like my hair and it just felt and looked desperately trendy - wallet chain, backward ball cap, etc. They looked like totally unpretentious recent grads.)
I remember at one point I asked them kind of derisively who played the drums on the recordings and Adam quietly said “Me. That bad, huh?” and we had a good laugh. There was also a point where Chris made some kind of jab at me (mother joke I think?) probably to see if I had a sense of humor and I came up with something right back at him and we had another good laugh. They were very laid-back pleasant guys with a dark sense of humor that was slowly coming out.
They asked to play Radiation Vibe so we went through that and called it quits. I remember Adam asking me what my plans were and whether I would be able to tour etc. and me telling him I was moving back to D.C. the next day to resurrect my band. I’m sure he was thinking “what the hell is he wasting our time for?” I don’t remember if we spoke after that but I have a fuzzy memory of another call. Of course the rest is history. I was wondering today while reading some articles about them whether I was the first drummer to play some of those songs with them as a band since it was just the two of them at that point. A couple of years later i went backstage at the 9:30 Club after a show (Ivy, I think) to say hi to Adam and I started out with “You won’t remember this but…” and he immediately smiled and recognized me which made my day. A very humble person despite his enormous talent. I’m so glad I got to play a microscopic role in his story. - Robert LeBourdais
(Click here for a PStorm story about Mother May I )
Adam and his band mate Chris Collingwood wrote some of the craftiest pop lyrics ever. Dig this.
Adam shared my love of Give The People What They Want era Kinks. It’s too bad we never crossed paths to discuss this subject in full.
Don’t sleep on their sad songs. I’ve always loved this heart breaker. I thought I about covering it live on Instagram and then thought better. This is the clip to watch. Adam on keys and Chris singing.
Enough of that sad stuff.
—-
Back to Conan for a song that most of us can relate to these days.
Bonus clip! Tinted Windows was Adam, the kid from Hanson, that one guy from Smashing Pumpkins and Bun E Carlos. Adam wrote the tunes of course. Great record!
It’s going to be a tough couple of months for everyone. Enjoy all this great music Adam and his partners left behind. - Colin
RUSH/Neil Peart and Nerd Fandom at Its Finest, Including a Homemade "Outdoor Drama" - by Kevin Montavon
Music fans worldwide were devastated this week to learn of the passing of a man who many consider not only the greatest rock drummer of all time, but also a lyricist par excellence as well; Neil Peart of Rush. For me, as I am sure it was for thousands, if not millions of Rush fans, it felt like I lost a dear friend.
Rush was the first band that I became a fan of after a stretch of 5 or 6 years of listening to nothing but Kiss. I still remember the day at Boy Scout summer camp when I heard the crazy long-haired older kid from down the street playing this amazing band on his jambox. There was this long thundering intro that built up to a driving metal soundscape before crashing out into a soft voice that was singing...a Bible quote? What was this? Some Christian band? But wait, then this thunderous roar began again and the most high-pitched voice I had ever heard started singing a song about priests (I was a Catholic, so these words intrigued me) of some Temple named Syrinx. Then there was this song about a guitar, and how these priests flipped out over the discovery of said guitar, and how it was going to ruin the world like it did the world of “ancient man,” then there was a song with this guy dying by a waterfall, and finally a song about an alien force conquering the planet. I was HOOKED. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. From that moment I became a fan.
Rush fans are notorious for being nerds and geeks, whatever those words actually mean in the year 2020. It seems they are a badge of honor today, but trust me, not so in the 1980's. Rush fans were the original fanboys. Hell, go watch the movie that is called Fanboys where Rush fandom is portrayed as nerd-culture chic alongside the main storyline of the movie, which deals with Star Wars worship. As I was reminiscing about my early love for Rush, I realized that I may indeed be a candidate for the ultimate Rush geek. Because let me tell you, at that young impressionable age, this whole storyline concept thing that I was hearing on 2112 really fascinated me. And the wheels in my head started to turn.
Here's where the story takes a side turn for a brief moment. Gotta set the stage here...pun intended. Growing up in Ohio, we have this thing here called an “outdoor drama” in Chillicothe, Ohio. It's called Tecumseh, and it's a play that is presented in an outdoor amphitheater in a gorgeous natural setting, that depicts the life of the legendary Shawnee leader. Around the time I first heard 2112, my older sister had taken me to see Tecumseh. Also around this same time, I had been on vacation with my Dad and brother in Cherokee, North Carolina, where the three of us had watched another outdoor drama called Unto These Hills. This one depicted the history of the Cherokee Indian Tribe. I was very much a fan of both of these presentations, and I had a great idea to do something similar in my own back yard…..literally.
I rounded up the neighborhood gang, consisting of my younger brother, and the three kids who lived across the street. All five of us were within just a few years of each other in age. At this time, I was the only real rock music fan in the group, but I was quite the ambassador already. Through my skills of persuasion I managed to talk the other kids into the acting out of 2112 as our own outdoor drama, in front of our parents. It was on. This was no small presentation either. We had stage sets – a stone barbecue with a Rubik's cube placed on top of it served as the “Great Computer” of our Temple Of Syrinx, and after a quick set change the same stone structure served as the cave where the protagonist dies.
We had choreographed battle scenes when the aliens attacked, complete with live ammunition in the form of firecrackers and smoke bombs (this was the early 80's...safety concerns not quite being what they are today). My brother and the neighbor boy were in charge of the effects. They went a little overboard, placing a couple of smoke bombs right under the chairs of a few parents. I even wrote a libretto (which I wish I still had today), explaining the storyline of the album. It was neighborhood Broadway theater at its...finest? Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, no photos or any kind of permanent record exists of this performance. I don't think any of the parents snapped any Polaroids (and if they did, I've never seen any), and there was definitely no social media then. So you're just going to have to take my word for it that this display of nerdiness actually happened.
The outdoor drama wasn't the only way I overindulged on Rush as a youth. The live album All The World's A Stage, coincidentally recorded on the 2112 tour, became the soundtrack whenever I wanted to play “rock band.” At one point I actually had my entire room converted into a “stage” where I “performed” that album, along with selections from Kiss Alive I & II “in concert” on a daily basis. I even recruited my Dad's assistance in this endeavor, making use of his carpentry skills to help me create air-guitars of the highest quality. I had Les Paul copies, Stratocaster copies, and of course I had a Rickenbacker Geddy Lee-style bass. None of these guitars had actual strings on them, or actually worked. If only I had put as much effort into learning to play a real instrument as I did in posing and rocking out with my models, I might have actually accomplished something as an adult musician.
I was fortunate enough when I got older to actually see the real Rush in concert. I eventually saw them 18 times over the years. I never missed a show in whatever locality I was living. And every time I saw them, I became that same little kid, acting out his fantasies in front of a large mirror and dreaming of the day I could set foot on that stage myself.
I am deeply saddened over the death of Neil Peart, but I will choose to reflect on all of the joy that he brought to my life, beginning in those storied days of youth, when anything seemed possible. - Kevin M.
The Cars and a Partial List of Career Defining Debut Records - by Colin Gawel and Ricki C.
(Colin & Ricki collaborated cybernetically on this post: Colin is in plain text, Ricki’s in italics.)
Sadly, we recently lost the talented musician and producer Ric Ocasek. The Cars debut record could perhaps be the most fully realized debut record of all time. Think about that. Off the top of my head here is an incomplete list of the greatest debut records ever recorded. The criteria for this list follows one simple rule:
If you only had the debut record, you would fully understand the artist. That knocks out 99.9% of records. For example, you can’t only own Meet the Beatles and claim to appreciate The Beatles. A great debut record, no doubt, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. But if you heard The Cars, you would never need another Cars record to fully appreciate the band. Let’s go to my list. Please let me know who I am missing as I am sure there are plenty.
The Cars - I used to play this record over the phone to girls I was too scared to talk to in 7th grade. Later when Watershed was working on The More It Hurts with Tim Patalan, we took a break from recording feeling pretty good about ourselves and ended up at a house party in Detroit. Someone put on The Cars and we all just kinda slumped at the same time. That record was flawless. We still had a wide river to cross. (I totally agree with Colin on this one. As he said, flawless record. For an in-depth account of my Troubled History with The Cars founder, check out Growing Old With Rock & Roll / Fighting With Ric Ocasek sometime.)
Van Halen - Boom. Have you seen the cover? Have you heard “Eruption”? What is this?
Tracy Chapman - “Fast Car” only gets better and the rest of the record is just as good.
Guns N’ Roses / Appetite for Destruction - Though the video for “November Rain” is the only GNR you need to watch.
Weezer / The Blue Record - Produced by Ric Ocasek. Pinkerton is my personal favorite but all other 15 Weezer records are just them trying to rip off their debut. You hear this, you get the gist.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - It’s got “American Girl.” Oh, and Jimmy Iovine can get bent for bad-mouthing Stan Lynch on later records. Sounds like a fake-ass producer looking for a scapegoat. Jimmy couldn’t get the right drum sounds with Bruce Springsteen, either? Stan seemed to play pretty well on this record. Once again see: “American Girl.” (Ricki: I’m gonna throw in my two cents on this one. Back in 1976 when I went HUGE for the Year Zero aspect of punk-rock and literally gave away all my old acoustic records from the 1960’s & 70’s, that first Heartbreakers record was mind-blowing. Yeah, The Clash were great and The Sex Pistols had a coupla cool singles, but Tom Petty and the guys were just so AMERICAN, ya know? I couldn’t really picture Sid Vicious sittin’ around a swimming pool quaffing beers & smoking joints, but I could CERTAINLY see Stan Lynch indulging in those activities whilst simultaneously trying to scam pert, pretty young American Girls. “The Wild One Forever,” “Anything That’s Rock & Roll,” “American Girl;” all classics. And “Mystery Man“ is definitely one of the Top Ten Rolling Stones Songs That The Rolling Stones Forgot To Write EVER.)
MeatLoaf / Bat Out of Hell - The first and only Meat record you need to own. Jim Steinman is from another planet.
Ramones - Made some better records but if you hear this, you pretty much know Ramones.
Here Is Little Richard - Same as Ramones.
The Killers / Hot Fuss.
Anyway, I’m at work serving coffee so chime in with who is missing.
R.I.P. Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr.
Ricki’s addendum to Great Debut Records List:
The New York Dolls. Possibly - In My Humble Opinion - THE GREATEST DEBUT ALBUM in the history of rock & roll, but I’m not going through my entire record collection to verify that. If I think of any better, I’ll get back to you.
The Whiles / Colors Of The Year. Joe Peppercorn has certainly had great moments on later records (who else in Columbus could have written “Interregnum Thrones/Sink Beneath Your Smile”?) but never as consistently genius a record as this debut.
The MC5 / Kick Out The Jams. What more needs to be said? “Kick out the jams, motherfucker!”
Ian Hunter / self-titled 1976 release. I’m not really sure this one should count, since Hunter already had 6 or 7 Mott The Hoople records behind him when he released this solo debut, but GODDAMN, what a great Declaration of Independence.
The Modern Lovers / self-titled (I HATE the term “eponymous,” and it’s hard to spell.) Recorded as demos in 1972 or so, not released until 1976. Classic. (For more check out Growing Old With Rock & Roll / The Modern Lovers.)