Some of you know David Middleton as the author of our Forty-Five Revolutions per Minute series. Each week, David picks out a (usually reasonably obscure) 45RPM record from his collection and talks about it. What some of you might not know is that David is a musician himself, and spent a chunk of the late Eighties and early Nineties fronting the band Waxing Poetics. The Virginia based-group got some face time on MTV, toured the country, and their first album, 1987’s Hermitage, was co-produced by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills.
I’m proud to inform you guys that the Waxing Poetics’ complete three-album discography is now available on iTunes and Amazon mp3! These albums have been unavailable for some time, so those of you who were fans back in the day -or want to check the band out for the first time- can do so!
At the risk of embarrassing one of my best friends (sorry, buddy), here’s some live footage of the Poetics from 1990. Thanks, YouTube! The sound quality isn’t fantastic, but you get the idea of how rockin’ these guys were. Ah, I just realized embedding has been disabled, so I’ve included the link here.
Back in 45 RPM #6, I wrote about the magical impact of the 7-inch on ’80’s indie rock. Well here’s another great artifact from that time period. Even though I was lucky enough to witness their live set a few times, Athens, GA’s Kilkenny Cats have always held great mystery for me. Even to this day not much is widely known about them, which makes this single all the more fun and entertaining. So I won’t bore you with silly details about my underage beer-soaked nights at the 40-Watt Club, I’ll just let these Cats’ sexy vibe speak for itself.
A VU-influenced ode to the joys of taking speed, side-A’s “Attractive Figure” introduces us early to the KC’s ratatat drumming and steel-rake guitars, then propels us head-first into its stop-start verse and soaring chorus. Great music for shaking off a hard day’s work, or more likely a long week’s finals. And when the band stops and singer Tom Cheek does that little thing where he breathes in? Pure sex.
The disc’s longer B-side, “Of Talk,” sounds like it could be an outtake from the Steve Wynn/Dream Syndicate 1982 classic Days Of Wine & Roses LP. Walls of distorted guitars bury Cheek’s low Lou Reed-like mumble, creating a dreamy atmosphere perfect to smoke pot (or shoot heroin) to. Or just kick back & let the music be your drug, which I think is the idea here.
Unfortunately my little lo-fi YouTube uploads failed this week. Probably too many grandmas at once trying to upload shots of cats chasing string. Anyway, there’s virtually no extensive footage of Kilkenny Cats anywhere on the internet.  A travesty if you ask me, but you can catch a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of the band in this trailer for the film ATHENS, GA INSIDE-OUT from 1986. A great film if you can find a copy, AGIO serves not only as a stellar indie-rock time-capsule, but also as a snapshot of how and why so much unusual and influential music could emerge from such a quiet little Southern college town.
NEXT WEEK: A double A-side from what I imagine would be Marvin Nash’s least favorite band.
Thanks to my buddies Kyle and Paul for the guest columns they provided for the past two weeks. I’m back like spinal cords, however, taking you on another tour through my music collection. It’s keeping me from watching my Giants play, but considering the score right now, that’s OK. Here’s what we get when we shuffle:
Track 1: “Hip Hop” by Mos Def (from “Black on Both Sides”, 1999)
Damn, what happened to Mos Def? He’s a legitimate triple threat as a singer, rapper and an actor, but he’s wasted his talent lately on half-baked albums (remember “Tru3 Magic”, the album that was released without a cover?) and mediocre movies (“Be Kind Rewind”). He’s got a new album scheduled for release next year. Hopefully, it’ll bring back the Mos we knew and loved, before the baby mama drama and the punching out photographies.
Track 2: “Dr. Heckyll & Mr Jive” by Men at Work (from “Cargo”, 1983)
Um…if you check yesterday’s posts, you’ll see that I just talked about Men at Work yesterday. This is an interesting little kowinkydink. When I was a kid, I loved this song. I’m honestly not sure I’ve given it a full listen since I was 7, though. Still a pretty good song. And it has a video. Wanna see it? I thought you’d never ask.
I’ll drag up a Police comparison once again and say while the Po-Po made better records, MAW made better videos.
Track 3: “Crack (demo)” by Run-DMC (from “Tougher Than Leather-Expanded Edition”, originally released 1988)
Remember back in the days when everyone had to do an anti-drug song? This was obviously before selling drugs became cool in hip-hop circles. This song is typical Run-DMC back and forth, but the most intriguing thing about “Crack” is the rumor that the song was supposed to be recorded with Michael Jackson, but Run, DMC and Jay found Mike weird and couldn’t relate. You don’t say, guys.
Track 4: “Why You Wanna Trip on Me” by Michael Jackson (from “Dangerous”, 1991)
I swear to you this was totally coincidental. This song was track 2 on “Dangerous” and finds the KOP bitching out the press for focusing on his…uh, pecularities while there are more urgent issues going on in the world. The man had a point. This was at the beginning of MJ’s new jack swing stage and stands as one of the better tracks on “Dangerous”, featuring a thumping beat and those signature MJ harmonies.
Track 5: “Flake” by Jack Johnson (from “Brushfire Fairytales”, 2002)
This is one of only a handful of tracks I’ve been able to tolerate Ben Harper on. For some reason, I’ve always thought of him as a poor man’s Lenny Kravitz and I just can’t get into him. This is also the song that introduced me (and most people) to Jack Johnson. I could definitely use anything that reminds me of summer now that I’m buried under 6970989 inches of snow in Massachusetts.
(and I’ll completely ignore the fact that the song is called “Flake”).
Track 6: “Bleeders” by The Wallflowers (from “Bringing Down the Horse”, 1996)
I will say this and watch any musical integrity I ever had completely evaporate: I enjoy hearing Jakob Dylan sing more than I enjoy hearing Bob Dylan sing. That said, I wish Jakob would come up with material as consistently well-written as his dad has. “Bringing Down the Horse” remains The Wallflowers’ only essential album. “Bleeders” sounds kinda like old-school Springsteen as sung by Tom Petty. It’s probably the best of the set’s non-singles. Now I feel bad for completely ignoring Dylan’s solo album from earlier this year. Has anyone heard it? Is it any good?
Track 7: “Reasons” by Earth, Wind & Fire (from “That’s the Way of the World”, 1975)
This is one of EW&F’s most memorable songs, despite the fact that I don’t think it was ever released as a single. I think I may have mentioned “Reasons” in a Falsettometer article a while back, and the high notes Philip Bailey hits on this song are pretty awesome. Even more awesome is the fact that Bailey can probably still hit the majority of those notes. Pretty amazing stuff. Here’s some old concert footage. The man is bad ass.
On that note, I bid you all a very smooth good night. If anyone wants to fill in next week, please let me know!!
Some of you know David Middleton as the author of our Forty-Five Revolutions per Minute series. Each week, David picks out a (usually reasonably obscure) 45RPM record from his collection and talks about it. What some of you might not know is that David is a musician himself, and spent a chunk of the late Eighties and early Nineties fronting the band Waxing Poetics. The Virginia based-group got some face time on MTV, toured the country, and their first album, 1987’s Hermitage, was co-produced by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills.
