Live Shot #70!

 

Composer/multi-instrumentalist Moe! Staiano conducting his piece Death of a Piano, First Church of Buzzard warehouse, Oakland CA 2019.

Goodbye Jerry Lee Lewis

 

Jerry Lee "The Killer" Lewis has passed on. Disaster Amnesiac is nowhere near an obsessive fan of the man, but I do realize that his musical vision was important to the early evolution of Rock 'n Roll, and his music is always enjoyable when I hear it. More than that almost, it strikes me that with along with the man, a certain attitude towards life and music has also gone. The attitude of take no prisoners, perhaps the original Punk Rock "fuck off and die" stance towards everyone and everything (save some dame dancing atop the rockin' 88), perhaps Dixie Fried country soul, maybe some element that Disaster Amnesiac isn't even aware of. Bull in a china shop types like Lewis are more and more rare, and maybe that's a good, and maybe that's not. But it seems a fact, especially within the music industry. There's just too much at stake, and too long a time of set standards and practices in place. The wild men are off doing something else now, if they're allowed to get past their childhoods with those wild hairs at all intact. Lewis epitomized an approach that has mostly been caged, and the so-called rebels of this era can't replicate the raw authenticity of guys such as him, try as they might. 

Race on, Jerry Lee Lewis, may your spirit find new hot corn mash and sassy jigglin' action up on some other, freer plane.

Cobrabob-65 Miles from Davis-self released, 2019

 

Much like so many other cities, San Francisco's music scene produces rich layers of musical activity. Some of this music quickly catapults onto stages wider and more far flung, others remain a bit more humble, quietly going about their  activities within smaller circles. Cobrabob are, for the time being, within the latter camp. That said, their 2019 65 Miles from Davis CD should push them out into the wider musical world, if musical vision and creativity is used as any kind of qualifier. This trio, comprised of Chris Lawson on guitar, percussion, and vocals, Scarp Home on drums, vocals, percussion, and cornet, and John Rodgers on guitar, vocals, and percussion, produces a sharp, focused Rock music that benefits greatly from what one hears clearly as a shared vision for their music. Rodger's guitar tones cut through in sober, non-heroic ways as they state the band's melodic statements. Disaster Amnesiac keeps noticing their dry presence within each of the CD's twelve tracks. Check Tonight for his ability to sweetly strum Pop chords as well. He does an exemplary job of playing lead guitar without ever forgetting its role within the overall sound matrix of the Rock band dynamic. The rhythm section of Home and Lawson pushes, pulls, stretches, and pounds out Davis's offerings in original ways, ones which they have clearly developed by working them out on stage and in rehearsal. As I've listened, the unique down-ness of their tandem has struck me again and again. There is nothing generic about their interplay on tunes such as The Champion and Means to and End/Underwater; the latter delves into Jam Band territories in the tastiest of ways. In the lyrics department, Cobrabob present visions of generally personal nature. The lines are delivered in ways that intrigue, and are never too obvious. They leave room for the listener to make impressions of their own, never a bad thing in this blogger's opinion. Rich horn flourishes are astutely added to a few tracks, giving them a Blues-ey sheen and showing the real musicality which exists within the band. Quite musical too is the clean and clear engineering job from Wally McClellan. Wally did a fine job of capturing each of the three points of Cobrabob's triangle. Anyone interested in non-easily classifiable Rock trio music, key word being music, should connect with Cobrabob to cop 65 Miles from Davis. It moves that way.

Random shot!

 

Old Art Deco hotel, prepped for demolition. Miami Beach, FL 10/18/22. The newer construction on the beach obliterates the Deco buildings, one can't even really notice them. Any uniqueness seems to be fading fast at this classic spot. Goodbye 20th Century I guess.

Live Shot #69!

 

World Winds, Tucson Meet Yourself Festival, 10/7/2022. Psychedelic liftoff via Sami Folk Music. They overcame a crappy monitor mix and found a loosely shambolic jamming that suited this listener just fine!

Live Shot #68!

 

Headhunt, The Edge Bar, Tucson AZ 9/29/22. Powerful young Grind-ers.

Goodbye Pharoah Sanders

 

It must have been in about 1990 when Disaster Amnesiac first got hip to the sounds of Pharoah Sanders via an LP picked up cheap at the Ohlone College flea market. I'd read about him in Val Wilmer's As Serious As Your Life, and as such would have been aware of his name. Pharoah's sounds hit this listener, as I'm sure they've done for millions of others, in some deeply spiritual spot. Seeing him a few years later at Yoshi's in Oakland confirmed to me that the man was putting out some deep vibes, ones which broke through the psychic gunk of daily postmodern life and into ones of a bit purer nature. John Coltrane, seeker of the sublime no matter what the consequences, surely heard same from young Pharoah. It strikes me that with his passing, the last of the 'Trane era woodwinds men have now shuffled off from this realm and into wherever it is that their spirits abscond to. In simpler terms, it's definitely a Goodbye 20th Century Event, as least for this wayward soul. During the insanity of 2020 and beyond, I found his LP Promises, done with  Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra, to be of tremendous help as I was imprisoned by government mandates. His tenor saxophone cries, somewhat weak from age and disease, matched the anguish that I felt as I watched my culture and the society in which it was contained crumble into.....something else. They fit that mood like a well worn coolie hat, blocking the hot tropical sun. Something else, yeah, that's what Pharoah Sanders was. This place may not even have deserved him, but he showed up anyway. The Creator still has a master plan.