Feel Bad For THE MAN

"Rock and roll is all about sticking it to the man!" – Someone

Now that the Democratic National Convention is in full swing, I figure it's time to post the August Feel Bad for You Mixtape. This month's theme is THE MAN! The dogs days of summer are only made worse by sitting in your cubicle and slaving away for THE MAN! At least that’s how I came up with the theme for this month's mixtape. Though THE MAN could be your boss, the government, whitey, your woman, Nashville record executives, your landlord, etc. I told the contributors to be creative with this one.

1. Snog - Corporate Slave
Remote Control (1997)
Submitted By: Bryan http://ninebullets.net/
Comments: This one was easy. Snog was bashing corporate america long before it was fashionable to do so and I knew as soon as you said the theme was "The Man" I had to include one of their songs. This song originally appeared on their 1997 album Remote Control but this particular version of it is from their 2006 retrospective Sixteen Easy Tunes For The End Times. Hope y’all like it as much as I do.

2. Ben Folds - The Ascent of Stan
Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001)
Submitted By: @philnorman
Comments: You wondered why your father was so resigned. Now you don’t wonder anymore…

3. The Clash - Clampdown
London Calling (1979)
Submitted By: April @ Now This Sound Is Brave
Comments: "The men at the factory are old and cunning / You don’t owe nothing, so, boy, get running / It’s the best years of your life they want to steal"

4. Chuck Prophet - American Man
¡Let Freedom Ring! (2009)
Submitted By: hoosier buddy
Comments: Chuck Prophet is the Captain America of guitar-slinging singer-songwriters. His trademark scarf and vest let you know he’s comfortable with the way he looks. The musical influences in this one song alone are a veritable melting pot of American culture. Twang meets classic rock and celebrates the love child with shameless 80′s riffage, His shield is the honest truth about what’s wrong, what’s weird,and what’s going on: "American man, three times your size, with blood on my lips, milk in my eyes." We all recognize this American man. Heck, some of us are him. Proud as hell, too!

5. Neil Young - Ohio
From: bootleg (1971)
Submitted By: tincanman
Comments: I had so many 'Man' punisms running through my head to impress you with I almost forgot the ultimate 'The Man hath run amok' song.

6. Woody Guthrie - Vigilante Man
Dust Bowl Ballads (1940)
Submitted By: Gorrck

7. Ralph Stanley - I Am The Man, Thomas
Ralph Stanley And The Clinch Mountain Boys: 1971-1973 (1995)
Submitted By: Truersound
Comments: I AM THE MAAAAN!

8. Minus 5 - Dear Employer (The Reason I Quit)
Down With Wilco (2003)
Submitted By: toomuchcountry
Comments: Oh yeah? Wow now you’re minus SIX my friend! I’m outta here.

9. OPM - Heaven is a Half Pipe
Buy: Menace to Sobriety (2000)
Submitted By: Ryan (Verbow @ altcountrytab.ca)
Comments: I remember this song getting a lot of play round the turn of the millenium. I don’t know if I would say its a good song but it makes me bob my head and laugh thinking, “yeah all I need is my board and my weed – the man can go eff himself!”

10. Peter Tosh - Legalize It
Legalize It (1976)
Submitted By: Simon
Comments: On the eve of Jamaican Independence 50th Celebrations and on the day the country is poised to make it a male/female sprint double gold at London 2012, then it's got to be Peter Tosh's "Legalize It," this Wailer gave the bird to The Man and if the stories are to be believed that's what cost him his life. Beat this Snoop Dogg.

11. Rodriguez - This Is Not A Song, It’s An Outburst: Or, The Establishment
Buy (mp3): Cold Fact (1970)
Submitted By: BoogieStudio22
Comments: It's the establishment, man.

12. John Keating - Jesus Christ Superstar
Sound Gallery Vol 1 (1972)
Submitted By: Bowood
Comments: Andrew Lloyd Webber on FBFY, it was always on the cards.

13. Anthrax - I’m the Man (Def Uncensored Version)
I’m the Man (1987)
Submitted By: Rockstar Aimz
Comments: Gorrck sent this CD to me in 2001 when the anthrax scare hit the east coast. We told one of our other friends that "I got Anthrax in the mail." She said, "Are you serious!!!" Our friends are not too bright. And we are immature.

14. Furnaceface - We Love You Tipper Gore
Just Buy It (1992)
Submitted By: Lord Summerisle
Comments: A song about "The Man" that's about A woman.

15. Screeching Weasel - A New Tomorrow
Anthem for a New Tomorrow (1993)
Submitted By: annieTUFF
Comments: So, when I heard the theme for this month was "The Man," I thought of rebelling against status quo, rejecting the norm and living your life the way you want to live it. Instantly I thought of this song, Screeching Weasel is a band I’ve loved for years. It doesn’t matter what music I’m listening to, or if I’m going thru a "only listening to Buck Owens on repeat/surf music 24-7/or whatever else constantly" phase, I’ll always be able to add a Screeching Weasel song to my mixtape (or really…we all know it’s a playlist…but mixtape just sounds better dudes, ok?). Anyway, back to this particular song, anytime I’m starting to question my life choices I can listen to this song and instantly feel better, really. Sound dumb? Who cares, it works for me.

16. Roger Alan Wade - Cars and Guns
Stoned Traveler (2009)
Submitted By: Adam Sheets

17. Drive By Truckers - Puttin’ People On The Moon
The Dirty South (2004)
Submitted By: TheOtherBrit
Comments: This was the first song that came to mind when I thought about The Man keeping ya down, especially convenient with the Mars landing just happening.

18. Bradley Wik and the Charlatans - Friday Night is for the Drinkers
Buy (Bandcamp): Burn What You Can, Bury the Rest…
Submitted By: Cowbelle www.morecowbelle.net

19. Pete Yorn (w/Natalie Maines) - The Man
Buy: The Nightcrawler (2006)
Submitted By: Trailer

20. The Countdown Five - Money Man
B-Side/Shaka Shake Na Na/Money Man (1969)
Submitted By: @popatunes
Comments: This theme seemed a bit of a challenge finding something that wasn't an obvious 'The Man' protest song, (my interpretation of the theme) so I was lead deep into the garage for an enjoyable excursion that distracted me to from my initial, but thought this little b-side gem from Texas City's The Countdown Five was worth sharing. Y'all know by now I have soft spot for low-fi psych garage grooviness. The band had two Billboard Top 100 hits, "Uncle Kirby" and "Shaka Na Na."

This Wheel's on Fire

Neil Young, Garth Hudson and Peter J. Moore, backed by the Sadies outside Moore's studio.

My buddy Rad Jen posted this on Facebook this weekend, and I thought that it was so brilliant that I had to share. Greg Quill, entertainment reporter for the Toronto Star, penned this wonderful essay on Neil Young and The Sadies recording the Bob Dyaln/Rick Danko classic "This Wheel's on Fire" for the album A Canadian Celebration of The Band, which was released in November 16.

This Neil’s on Fire: A classic cut reborn

Those who know him say Neil Young never begins a new recording project before cleansing his musical soul by immersing himself in The Basement Tapes, those seminal 1965 recordings of one of rock’s overwhelming Big Bang moments, when The Band – formerly The Hawks, from Toronto – and Bob Dylan, recuperating from a motorcycle accident near Woodstock, N.Y., undertook a stunningly fruitful 100-song collaboration, melding new compositions with country music, folk music, blues, rock ‘n’ roll and R&B, and redefining the forms, functions, language and boundaries of popular American music.

So, when Young turned up one morning in April 2009 at the west-end Toronto studio of award-winning music producer/engineer Peter J. Moore to add his contribution to a collection of some great and some lesser known Band songs — recorded during the past three years by a number of Canada’s prominent pop, rock and folk acts, selected and arranged by The Band’s legendary keyboardist Garth Hudson, and released last week as A Canadian Celebration of The Band, on the Curve Music label — it was appropriate that a particularly potent talisman, the original Big Pink basement tape recording of the Dylan-Rick Danko composition, “This Wheel’s On Fire,” was positioned decorously on the studio’s fireplace mantel, oozing mojo.

Young and Toronto country-rock outfit The Sadies were about to lay into what may well be the best version of the song — recorded by everyone from Ian & Sylvia to Siouxsie and the Banshees, and also known as the theme song to Absolutely Fabulous — ever recorded, and certainly the album’s money cut.

“They had intended to record it with acoustic instruments,” Moore says, recalling some of the dozens of amusing, cathartic, frustrating and catastrophic events that occurred during the lengthy recording project, the brainchild of Hudson and his wife/manager, Maud, who live in upstate New York.

“And Neil was supposed to record his bit four months earlier, but performance schedules and a sore throat kept pushing it back.”

When Young finally did show up – his three tour buses took up an entire block of the narrow residential street on which Moore’s studio is situated – it was on a travel day between concerts in Kingston and London. And he had no intention of playing an acoustic guitar.

“There’s a knock at the door, and Larry Cragg, Neil’s guitar technician, is standing there, asking how he can get ‘the rig’ into the studio,” Moore says.

Young’s guitar rig — a famously mystical contraption made up of a battered, modified vintage Fender amplifier boosted by several custom-made sound-processing devices, distortion effects and a number of reverb plates, linked together and gaffer-taped to an assembly that rests in a huge black box — can’t be turned sideways, for fear of displacing loose but vital objects, Moore was told.

“So we had about six guys lift it over the driveway fence and into the backyard, where it was unpacked, and the rig was rolled into the studio’s piano room through patio doors that had to be removed.”

Accommodating the guitarist’s huge red pedal board with it’s gigantic “umbilical cord” that ran from the main studio in the front of the building to the rig in back, meant cutting holes in doors and jambs – ad hoc renovations that Moore, credited with Hudson as co-producer on the album, was only too happy to make in order to facilitate the creation of a recording he calls “a labour of love.”

With Hudson and The Sadies in Moore’s “big room”, and his guitar rig in another, Young worked through the song, settling the arrangement, before the musicians cut “four or five” versions, any of which would have been perfectly acceptable, Moore says.

“Then Neil left, and went back into the piano room where his amp was, and closed the door. I could hear him practicing scales in there with the piano, warming up his voice . . . then things got very quiet.”

Thinking their work was more or less done, The Sadies relaxed. Dallas Good had left his electric guitar on a stand in the studio to make coffee in the adjoining kitchen. Brother Travis was in a corner picking an acoustic guitar off-mic. Garth leaned over his keyboard. Drummer Mike Belitsky, Moore recalls, had set his sticks aside and was standing by his kit, chatting with bassist Sean Dean.

“Suddenly, the piano room door flew open, and without a word, Neil rushed into the studio, picked up his guitar and whacked out this enormous chord. He was going for it.”

The only evidence you’ll hear of the panic that ensued – Dallas flying across the room, plugging in his axe (Moore edited out the “pop” in the mix), Dean picking his stand-up bass off the floor, Belitsky diving into his kit and extracting his sticks – is the missing first beat on the snare drum.

It’s a beat Moore says he’s happy to live without.

“That was a killer take. Luckily the recorder was still running.”

Part fury, part ecstasy, “This Wheel’s On Fire” by The Sadies, Hudson and Young is a defining event on A Canadian Celebration of The Band, a three-minute explosion that captures all six musicians at their best, and delivers a heart-stopping wallop. It sounds extemporaneous, immediate, too big for the room – it’s as good as rock ‘n’ roll gets.

“I think that was Neil’s intention,” Moore says. “I’m just guessing here, but when he stormed out of that back room it was as if he meant to catch everyone off guard, to get their blood pumping.

“If that was his plan, it certainly worked.”

Buy (Maple Music): Garth Hudson Presents A Canadian Celebration of The Band (2010)

Garth Hudson plays keyboards on all tracks along with the following artists:
1. Forbidden Fruit – Danny Brooks & The Rockin’ Revelators
2. Out Of The Blue – Mary Margret O’Hara
3. Acadian Driftwood – Peter Katz & The Curious
4. This Wheel’s On Fire – Neil Young and The Sadies
5. Ain’t Got No Home – Suzie McNeil
6. Clothes Line Saga - Cowboy Junkies
7. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere - Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle
8. Sleeping - Bruce Cockburn & Blue Rodeo
9. Yazoo Street Scandal - The Road Hammers
10. The Moon Struck One – Raine Maida
11. The Shape I’m In - The Sadies
12. Tears Of Rage – Chantal Kreviazuk
13. I Loved You Too Much – Hawskley Workman
14. Knockin’ Lost John - Great Big Sea
15. King Harvest - Blue Rodeo
16. Move To Japan – The Trews
17. Genetic Method (Anew) – Garth Hudson
18. Chest Fever – Ian Thornley & Bruce Cockburn

I don't have this record yet. Who wants to get their favorite blogger an early Christmas present???

Rick Danko - This Wheel's on Fire.mp3
Buy: Times Like These (2000)

Thanksgiving Canadienne

I've been sick as fuck for the last week and haven't had the energy to get out of bed, much less to blog. If anyone has a good sore throat/dry cough remedy, I'm all ears. I'm sort of on the mend now, just in time for the long weekend here in Canada.

Yes, its that wild and wacky holiday, Canadian Thanksgiving. Poster DeadManSaloon from Newfoundland (one of my favorite places) posted this tidbit on the AltCountryTab.ca forums about Thanksgiving in the Great White North.

Hey, who wants some pretty much useless information!?

Thanksgiving in Canada used to be celebrated in November, but after WWI, Armistice Day was, of course, placed on November 11th, and the two dates were celebrated at pretty much the same time (one on Sunday, the other on Monday, I think). However, due to the the joyousness related to Thanksgiving, and the reflection with Armistice Day, they were eventually split up and Thanksgiving, like the weird, step-child, holiday it is in Canada, was thrown back to October (and Armistice Day became Remembrance Day).

I'm taking a Newfoundland Folklore class at uni this term, and picked up this tidbit yesterday, along with the knowledge that one of the origins of Thanksgiving in Canada is American refugees (who were still loyal to the English) who came up here after the Revolution. You imperialist assholes (I kid, I love you guys!). There were some First Nations from what is now Canada that picked it up from the Europeans too, probably right before they were killed.

I don't have a "The More You Know" image, sorry.

Its always a weird holiday for me. Its on a Monday, there is no football (see note below), and there is no shopping. I have no plans to eat lots of turkey and pie, and tomorrow I plan on going to work to try to catch up from being sick last weekend. Either that or watch an eight hour marathon of The Office on cable (in Toronto on Rogers cable channel 90, 11 am - 7 pm).

I am very thankful for Canadian musicians. Here are three of my favorites:

Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World (acoustic).mp3
Buy: Freedom (1989)

The Sadies - Wasn't Born to Follow.mp3
Buy: Tremendous Efforts (2001)

Great Lake Swimmers - Everything is Moving so Fast.mp3
Buy: Lost Channels (2009)

Note: OK technically there is football, but its the CFL so it doesn't count.

Soul Cleanse

Today I am going on a soul-cleansing Neil Young bender. Who wants to join me?

After the Goldrush.mp3
Buy: Live Rust (1979)

Lookin' For a Love.mp3
Buy: Zuma (1975)

Everybody Knows this is Nowhere.mp3
Buy: Live at the Fillmore East-1970 (2006)

More on Neil

I forgot to mention in my review that the General Admission at the Air Canada Centre was set up without seats, so I got to get up close to the bands. I swiped this photo from my favorite Toronto blogger Chromewaves, who wrote a great review and took lots of sweet photos from both shows. And that lucky bastard got to meet Neil!

Hey Hey, My My

Concert Review: Neil Young with Wilco and Everest, December 4, Air Canada Centre, Toronto

The first thing that strikes me when I see living legends in concert is the range of audience that they attract, and Neil Young attracted quite an interesting mix at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday, Dec. 4, from burned-out hippies older than my parents (for the record, my folks are one year younger than Neil), to kids barely old enough to drink, to youngsters attending the show with their now straight-laced, Bay Street parents who wished they were still hippies. The hipsters, the scenesters, the stoners, the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They all think he's a righteous dude.

Young came on stage with his band and turned the normally chilly hockey arena into the hottest place in town, blasting through "Love and Only Love," and then cranking it up higher with "Hey Hey, My My." Though he looks a little worse for wear, his voice is still strong and he belted out many classics from his 40+ year career. He wailed on the eclectic guitar like it was still 1979, and his band played in the spirit of Crazy Horse. In fact, Young recently commented in an interview with Rolling Stone that he has "no limit" to what he can do with this band, and has known all of the musicians for more than 20 years.

Young toned it down a bit and played organ for "Mother Earth," and broke out the acoustic guitar for "Needle and the Damage Done" and other classics from Harvest. In addition to the classics, Young also played four new tracks which he has been playing for most of this late summer/fall/winter tour. The new trio of "Just Singing A Song (Won't Change the World)," "See Change," (or "Sea Change" depending on who you ask), and "When Worlds Collide," all seem to be very in tune with Young's politics. Yeah, you can sing about change, but let's see some action too. And these new tunes rock pretty hard too. Its nice to know that Neil isn't resting on his legacy, and is still cranking out the rock.

In addition to being a righteous dude, Neil Young can also be a weird dude. The stage was decorated with odd objects - a cigar store wooden Indian in the far left corner, a telephone with its own red spot light in front of the drum set, an artist painting something abstract in the background, a crazy owl painting in the lights, weird lettering in the background that eventually spelled out N-E-I-L in lights during the encore. After his encore of the Beatles's classic, "A Day in the Life," he went over to the marimba and played two odd notes, looked at the audience with a goofy expression on his face, and walked off of the stage. Even his wife Pegi, who sang backup and played percussion and piano during the show, gave him a funny look. But just before this "solo" he stripped off all of the strings from his guitar like the rock god that he is. Awesome. Here's to showing yet another generation how its done.

Set List
1. Love and Only Love - Ragged Glory (1990)
2. Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) - Rust Never Sleeps (1979)
3. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
4. Powderfinger - Rust Never Sleeps (1979)
5. Spirit Road.mp3 - Buy: Chrome Dreams II (2007)
6. Cortez the Killer - Zuma (1975)
7. Cinnamon Girl - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
8. Oh, Lonesome Me - After the Gold Rush (1970)
9. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) - Ragged Glory (1990)
10. Needle and the Damage Done - Harvest (1972)
11. Lighting a Candle - New Song
12. Unknown Legend -Harvest Moon (1992)
13. Heart Of Gold - Harvest (1972)
14. Old Man - Harvest (1972)
15. Get Back To The Country - Old Ways (1985)
16. Just Singing A Song (Won't Change the World) - New Song
17. See Change - New Song
18. When Worlds Collide - New Song
19. Cowgirl In The Sand - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
20. Rockin' In The Free World - Freedom (1989)

Encore
21. A Day In The Life (Beatles Cover)

"See/Sea Change" fan footage from the summer European tour. The other new tunes can also be found on YouTube.


Wilco has been losing me lately. I loved their 2002 release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I thought 2004's A Ghost is Born was good, and though many of my friends lauded 2007's Sky Blue Sky, I couldn't get into it at all. Its probably no surprise then that I was underwhelmed by Wilco's performance. Don't get me wrong - they are great musicians, their sound was terrific, and even though lead singer Jeff Tweedy confessed to being under the weather he still sounded great. Guitarist Nels Cline is so much fun to watch. He had two, if not three, face melting solos, and blew at least two strings during his scorching performance. But, this is also where the band lost me. A perfect example of this was their bizarre rendition of "Via Chicago." I did not recognize the tune at first, it started very slow and soft, and then Cline burst in with this screechy/feedback avant rock. Everyone around me, including myself, thought he made a big fuck-up and was playing the wrong song. But given that the band didn't cringe, and that he subsequently made that noise two more times, I assumed that they meant to do that. It was clearly a "WTF?" moment. Layer that on top of the soft, folky Sky Blue Sky tracks, and it made for an anticlimactic opener for a rock legend who single-handedly blew the sextet of Wilco off of the stag.

Set List
1. You Are My Face - Sky Blue Sky (2007)
2. War on War - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
3. Handshake Drugs - A Ghost is Born (2004)
4. Jesus, Ect. - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
5. Impossible Germany - Sky Blue Sky (2007)
6. Via Chicago - Summerteeth (1999)
7. California Stars.mp3 - Buy: Mermaid Avenue (1998)
8. Hate it Here.mp3 - Buy: Sky Blue Sky (2007)
9. Walken - Sky Blue Sky (2007)
10. I'm the Man Who Loves You - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

The Los Angeles-based band Everest opened with a 30 minute set of six or seven songs. They sounded great, if not a little out of place in a giant hockey arena. They were hand-picked by Young for this tour, and are signed to Young's Vapor Records label. I can see these guys easily rocking a smaller venue. They have a fun diary of their tour on their website, where you can also listen to some of their tunes. It looks like they played with local musician Hayden during their Friday night set. Damn, I wish I would have seen that Friday show too.
Buy: Ghost Notes (2008)

Holiday Office Party

Its that time of year again, the time where everyone in your office gets together for some holiday cheer. You HAVE to go to the party because if you don't your boss will frown at you. But really, is there a more painful event during the holidays? Wouldn't you rather spend time with your in-laws or drunk Uncle Kenny than spend an evening with the cretins you work with? The upside is that someone will undoubtedly get really drunk and make an ass of themselves (probably you). Someone will technicolor yawn on your boss's shoes (again, probably you). And someone will hook up with Bobby the copier boy (hopefully not you as you have puke breath from the previous sentence. But hey, Bobby isn't picky.).

Well, I for one am skipping the office holiday party. Why? Cause I have tickets to see Neil freakin' Young! SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M GOING TO ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I usually hate seeing bands at the Air Canada Centre, but I make exceptions for Neil Young and Bob Dylan. And this show will be extra awesome because Wilco is one of the opening bands. This show may rival The Hold Steady/Drive-By Truckers double bill. Oh man am I excited!!!

Check out a review from the Montreal show on Monday night (12/1).

I have to admit that I am not crazy about Wilco's 2007 release Sky Blue Sky, especially when I started hearing it on Volkswagen commercials. But, Jeff Tweedy and the current lineup including guitarist Nels Cline are one of the best lives acts going today.

Wilco - Either Way.mp3
Buy: Sky Blue Sky (2007)

Wilco - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.mp3
Buy: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

Neil Young -A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite.mp3
Buy: Live at Massey Hall, 1971 (2007)

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Sugar Mountain.mp3
Buy: Live Rust (1979)

Rockin' in the Free World

Note: I was traveling for business last week and could not post do to a crap internet connection at the downtown Marriott in Kansas City. Booo-urns. This should have been posted on Wed., Nov. 5.

"I didn't vote for him, but I wish him well."
- Overheard at Kansas City International Airport

Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World (live acoustic).mp3
Buy: Freedom (1989)

It was a great day to be an American on Nov. 5, 2008. As I cruised through the Toronto airport, the election was all everyone was talking about, especially the Canadians. And most of the people that I met, such as the gentleman in the above quote, were, for the first time in a long time, genuinely hopeful about the future. Even my father's distant cousins in Germany e-mailed him to congratulate him on the president-elect.

"Rockin' in the Free World" is one of my favorite Neil Young songs. It was written in the context of the 1980's Regan/Bush I American, but I think it still rings pretty true today. The song is very incendiary, but with a hint of hopefulness. The US has lots of problems, and those problems are not going to go away with a new president. There is a ton of work to be done.

Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive,
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin' in the Free World!