Graham Parker: Live! Alone in America (1989)

We've tried three new hosts (Crocko, Rapidshare and Nekups) based on your comments (see HERE) please give us your review of the one(s) you try. Your feedback is highly appreciated!


To help pass the time till the start of Graham Parker's Big Year (more details HERE) MRML is going to dig into the bulging 'GP stuff' folder, to bring you a wide-ranging selection of Recordings of Independent Origin and Out-Of-Print wonders.





Upon my first exposure to the solo Parker of Live! Alone in America I was underwhelmed. Perhaps because GP had been such an impressive band leader, I wasn't ready for this ultra-stripped down set. Now, of course, I can hear how the raw passion still burns through on both familiar tracks like "Hotel Chambermaid and the otherwise-unavailable ones, "Soul Corruption", "Three Martini Lunch" and "Durban Poison". I've been listening to this album non-strop this week and have really come to hear how by cutting the arrangements to the bone proves just how tightly written these songs really are.


Graham Parker, guitar, vocals
Recorded at Philadelphia's Theater of Living Arts October,1988

Tracklist
1         White Honey     2:31   
2         Watch The Moon Come Down     4:31   
3         Black Honey     3:14   
4         Protection     3:53   
5         Soul Corruption     5:48   
6         Gypsy Blood     5:02   
7         Back To Schooldays     2:20   
8         Durban Poison     2:58   
9         The 3 Martini Lunch     3:27   
10         Back In Time     2:46   
11         Hotel Chambermaid     2:23   
12         Don't Let It Break You Down     3:17   
13         You Can't Be Too Strong     3:05   
14         A Change Is Gonna Come     2:28

GP fans - what do you make of this album? Is Parker as strong  solo as he is with a band? Do you wanna hear another batch of Parker rarities? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!

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Mediafire Sucks: Now What?

Music Ruined My Life is not ending just because Mediafire gutted its collection of out-of-print/never-in-print rarities. We are, however, considering, what comes next. After all,  I was crushed when MassMirror died in the early days but that loss ended up being a good kick in the ass for me. So post-Mediafire, there are a number of questions that need to be sorted through.

1. What does Mediafire do next?

Does anyone know how Mediafire proceeds after they lock your account? Do they delete your account or your files or what?

2. Does MRML need to offer regular downloads?

I think of this blog as one that spreads unavailable music to people and hence the downloads have always seemed important to me. Are they to you? Would you still visit with less links? I make a point of regularly writing posts with no downloads and they receive a comparable number of visitors and as many, or more, comments than the download-laden posts. What do you think?

3. What is the best site for uploading files now?

The last post on my hosting problems (see HERE), generated a flurry of positive and constructive comments. The bulk of the suggestions centered around what places are now viable that Megaupload has been shut down and Mediafire and Sendspace have buckled under. I'm not looking for a sleazy site that pays people to upload illegal content  - just a place that allows the unavailable to become available. Mediafire was once a great site and I never really resented them for removing content they considered  'grey'.

Here are some the of alternatives you suggested :


DivShare 
great place for uploading individual songs but it has a storage limit  of 5GB of which I'm half way to just by sharing a song or two here and there.

Rapidshare
For no reason they closed my free account years ago but many of the links are still alive today. 

Hotfile 
One of those 'reward' places...


4Shared
Interesting possibility but everyone who d/l's needs to have an account with 4Shared


A Drive
A pay site. Not to whinge, but I spend enough of my time on this blog that the concept of spending cold hard cash to continue just seems perverse. Would MRML readers be willing to foot the cost of an account at this or any other site?


uploaded.to
A bit of a mystery...


Your specific thoughts on these (or other options) is needed.

- -

There's another round of questions to come but worry not, we'll be back...

Grant Hart: 2541 E.P. (+ Every Everything Documentary)

On of MRML's most commented-upon series was the one in which I argued that Hüsker Dü singer/drummer Grant Hart's solo career had been unfairly marginalized in contrast with the justly celebrated work of his former partner, singer/guitarist Bob Mould. Now following a well-recieved 2009 comeback album backed by Godspeed You Black Emperor, a new documentary, Every Everything, currently looking for support at Kickstarter, we may be seeing a redress in the balance of praise.




(Watch full-sized version here)


Surprisingly, considering how he'd referred to Mould's late period Hüsker Dü work as "square", Hart's debut was even more more sensitive singer-songwriter fodder than Mould's! "2541" is however, a moving song of loss with a fittingly mournful melody. The fine lyrical details and the the swelling chorus make for the perfect eulogy for the Hüskers. It's blatantly autobiographical but unsentimental and it contains many a stinging line like, "It's probably not be the last time I'll have to be out by the first".

The rest of the EP "Come, Come" and "Let Go" is less-than-spectacular but as this recording of "2541" is very different then the one on Intolerance, it's a crucial release.





So what do you make of Hart's comeback? Of "2541"? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the 2541 EP link).

 
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Jonah Matranga: “The Lonesome Death Of Trayvon Martin”

"He's a no-account son of a bitch, he's just like a scum bag of the earth, I should have sued him and put him in jail."

William Zantzinger on Bob Dylan

Factual errors aside, Bob Dylan's 1963 protest song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" brutally illustrated the fatal violence that can be visited on poor African-Americans with scant penalty for the guilty.

The song, recently given a spooky reading by Cage the Elphant, sadly still speaks to 21st century American racial relations as evidenced by the tragic death of Trayvon Martin in Florida in February of this year. While the evidence in this explosive case has not all been assembled, the fact that George Zimmerman* could walk away free after killing the unarmed youth he pursued against the advice of law enforcement is shocking. The coterie of far-right reactionaries willing to "philosophize disgrace" piles insult upon injury. There is no question that Zimmerman chased, shot and killed Martin and it is my belief that if there are any mitigating circumstances, they should be argued in front of a judge and jury, not played out in a media free-for-all.

Of course it was the reaction of people, in both the mainstream media and social media, that brought this issue to international attention, so let us play an oh-so-modest part in that reaction with this little batch of words and a song.

"The Lonesome Death Of Trayvon Martin” by American folk-punk-emo dude, Jonah Matranga is an earnest adaptation, which, like Dylan's original, seems to represent a gut  reaction to the initial injustice rather a balanced account of the events. While this song will not likely be remembered when the crime's memory fades, it is, if nothing else, another indication of how the protest song will be spread ("Please feel free to share all of this in any way you like. Any money generated will go directly to Trayvon's family.") in the internet age. 




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*(Speaking of Bob Dylan and this case, has anyone noticed that George Zimmerman's father's name is Robert?)

Cloud Nothings: Stay Useless (2012)

Well we discussed the eighties revival yesterday (though the response was sorta muted), so today let's turn a jaded eye to the nineties revival. While much fuss has been raised over bands like Yuck and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, I'd argue Cloud Nothings have spit out the first classic of the neo-nineties genre with "Stay Useless". Check out the contrasting verse and chorus, that abrasive Steve Albini production, the self-loathing slacker lyrics ("Can I see what’s going wrong with me/I used to have it all, now I’m alone") and of course that razor-sharp hook that could just gut you. If you love Superchunk's "Slack Motherfucker" or Archers of Loaf's "Web in Front", you owe it to yourself to check this out.

So what do you make of this nineties revival that's going on?

What's your first take on "Stay Useless"?

Let us know in the slightly-underutilized COMMENTS section.

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