Rock the Vote

They've always thought we should just shut up and sing/dance/play for them.

On October 16, 1984, I traveled from Boston to Providence to see R.E.M. and the dB’s at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. That was a good year to see the band live, and I’d already seen them in a track arena in Cambridge, MA, the next night at the Rat in Kenmore Square, and at a bunch of shows up and down the east coast earlier that summer with the Dream Syndicate as the opener.

Michael Stipe had never talked much between songs up to that point, so it was notable that, sometime in the middle of the show, he took the time to say something along the lines of “Let’s go out and vote next month so we can get a new president.”

I didn’t think much of his comment at the time. We were at the height of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and this was hardly a controversial idea in the creative community. You could probably made a 5-CD box set filled with anti-Reagan songs.

8-track to infinity

R.E.M. were still pretty open about letting people hang out backstage after the show, so there was usually a crowd in the dressing room after a show. I had somehow gotten a cassette of rough mixes of David Thomas and the Pedestrians’ upcoming LP More Places Forever, and I knew Michael was a fan, so I told him about how much I liked the new record.

David Thomas is best known as lead singer of the Cleveland art punk band Pere Ubu, a group whose music most casual fans find pretty challenging. I think David sees them as his pop group, so his solo work is pretty far out there for most people.

I’d seen David play with the Pedestrians the previous December at Storyville in Boston with a lineup that featured former Henry Cow members Chris Cutler on drums and Lindsay Cooper on sax and bassoon. To say this was abstract music would be an understatement, but I’ve got to credit David for opening up my ears to the idea that music could be far more complicated than the country, soul, and punk rock that I’d always loved.

The LP added Peru Ubu bassist Tony Maimone, which went a long way towards pulling the sound back to something resembling progressive rock. Listening today, it all sounds pretty normal to me but this music was definitely outside of my everyday experience back then. More Places Forever is out of print and was only issued as a stand alone title on vinyl. It’s also on the David Thomas, Monster 5-CD box set of his ’80s output recorded while Pere Ubu was broken up. You can buy used copies on Discogs.com or listen to the entire thing on YouTube.*

That’s background meant to explain that I knew Michael was also a fan of Pere Ubu and I was sure he’d be interested in hearing about how good the new record was going to be. Here I was doing what I (ok, naively) had always imagined bands did backstage after a show, talking about music with someone else who loved music.**

We were interrupted by a pack of guys (all of whom looked like Robert Chambers, sat least in my memory) who confronted Michael about what he said on stage. How dare he attack Reagan? What was fucking wrong with him? Why did he have to ruin the show? Why couldn’t he just shut up and sing?

This wasn’t a disagreement over politics, more like a pack of Giants fans trying to pick a fight at Dodger Stadium. Think “You disrespected my team, you’re a dick, maybe we should kick your ass.”

Michael excused himself, and I’m not sure I ever saw him hanging out that way after a show ever again. I don’t blame him.

There were a lot of people I went to school with who thought that the right kind of art would help make people more tolerant, forgiving, generous, and respectful of people different from us. At least, that was the rationale for turning our backs on the opportunity to grasp the levers of real wealth and power to pursue a life in music, movies, TV, or sports.

I still believe that art can help people see a better version of themselves in spite of all the evidence to the contrary out there. Please be generous with your artist friends over the next few months, especially since so many of them fear that we’re about to enter an era where free expression will no longer be tolerated when it disrespects the men in power.

I’ve invested my time and energy in businesses that aim to give professional tools to men and women who don’t have access to the education and financial backing that gives middle- and upper-class Americans a head start. A lot of those people are immigrants, most don’t look like anyone you’d see at a UGA football game, and nature has wired more than a few of them in ways that are unacceptable to a vocal subset of Americans who want to run the country.

Civilizations have historically censored artists when they don’t want individuals to spend too much time thinking for themselves. Artists can’t help but think for themselves, and their lives shine light on a path that’s different than the one that everyone else is expected to follow.

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. Maybe the threat is imaginary and the people threatening to shut down our culture are just running their mouths and have no intention or ability to follow through with their publicly stated aims.

Anyway, Michael Stipe thinks you should vote so we can get a new president. He’s not wrong.

*If record companies and music publishers care so much about who’s exploiting their catalogs, I wonder how come they just let anyone and everyone run wild posting out-of-print music on YouTube. I’m grateful that YouTube has become such a valuable resource for music research, but I’m baffled as to why it doesn’t spur anyone to make music available on Bandcamp. Or, if they don’t want people to hear it, go to the effort to make YouTube take it down.

**(Of course, I went to see the Black Crowes in Macon a few weeks back and ended up backstage talking about stupidly rare punk rock 45s with Chris Robinson, Todd Ploharski, founder of LowYoYoStuff Records in Athens and Kevin Sellors of Soapbox. Todd brought along a copy of the ATL psych rarity The Square Root of Two by Night Shadow in case any of you need one and have the cash.)

Counting on our divine intervention

I saw Matthew Sweet’s band play on August 29th at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA with Matthew backed by Debbi Peterson (Bangles) on drums, Paul Chastain (Velvet Crush) on bass, John Moreman on electric guitar and Adrian Carter on acoustic.

Girlfriend was a surprise breakthrough hit in 1991, a record made for A&M Records that the company’s execs couldn’t hear for the classic it is. I had a production deal with Lou Maglia’s startup Zoo Entertainment and offered support to Scott Byron, Bud Scoppa, and the rest of the A&R team when they wanted to pick up the album.

Girlfriend and 100% Fun both went gold, but Matthew Sweet never had the kind of pop radio hit that would keep the royalties flowing forever. He’s continued to make outstanding music, but he’s been working really hard to make a living through touring and selling his paintings over the last few years.

After the show, I talked with Matthew backstage and we talked about the Zoo days, shared a few updates about people we both know, and talked about records (see above: just what I always imagined people did in their dressing rooms). I filled him in on the meeting Bud and I had with Alex Chilton in New Orleans about making a solo LP for Zoo after that first Big Star reunion show in 1993. It a great time with someone who I wish I’d spent more time with over the years.

We also talked about the fantastic audiophile vinyl and CD/SACD reissues of Girlfriend, Altered Beast, and 100% Fun released by Intervention Records. I introduced myself to Intervention’s Shane Buettner at the AXPONA audio show earlier this year to compliment him on his work. Shane and I got to talking and we’re now putting together some Lisa Loeb reissues, with details to be announced soon.

(Matthew told me about the 1998 episode of The Drew Carey Show that featured both him and Lisa, alongside Dusty Hill from ZZ Top, Joe Walsh, Dave Mustaine from Megadeth, and Roy Clark. I’m not sure how I missed that one when they filmed it.)***

Matthew was on tour in Canada when he suffered a stroke a couple of weeks ago, and he’s now facing catastrophic expenses while he embarks on a rehab campaign that will involve a long-term (maybe a year) in a residential facility.

The predicted financial cost is astronomical, and Matthew’s management has started a GoFundMe with a goal of $750K to cover his treatment. Contributors have been generous, but the campaign has only raised 60% of the total so far.

The social safety net in the United States is a disaster, so it’s not surprising that a self-employed artist like Matthew Sweet finds himself in a catastrophic financial bind when facing a serious medical issue. I’ve shopped at the Affordable Care Act online store, and there are plenty of plans that cap coverage at levels that wouldn’t cover someone in this situation.

I work with small businesses who are burdened with the responsibility of providing health coverage to their employees in a market designed to put the screws to anyone who doesn’t have enough critical mass to create any leverage against the insurance companies and health care providers.

I donated to help pay Matthew’s medical bills even though I know that an individual musician like him isn’t going to have access to those sweet Aetna or Kaiser Permanente rates. He’s not the first only musician I grew up who’s facing impossible medical bills and he won’t be the last.

There’s not really any political will in the States to address these kinds of issues, so I’m not sure that any vote you cast will result in any immediate changes for the better. I do suspect that at least one candidate is determined to strip out whatever protections people like us have now, so I’ll be directing my support elsewhere.

***In spite of the fact that he played the unbelievable guitar solo on Wanda Jackson’s “Hard Headed Woman,” I always first think of Roy as the guest star on The Beverly Hillbillies “Cousin Roy in Hollywood” episode, which features the greatest joke in the history of the show. Watch the entire episode here, but make sure you check Jethro’s explanation of his peace symbol necklace at 3:35.

Imitating Angels

We lost Inger Lorre from the Nymphs to cancer a couple of weeks ago. I’ve got no idea what her medical insurance situation was like, but the reports online suggest that she died relatively quickly after her diagnosis.

The band’s one LP for Geffen/DGC Records is a wall-to-wall classic, proof that outside forces can stymie a record company from making every great song a hit.

I first heard about Inger from Tom Zutaut, shortly after he signed the band. He told me that he was a party, saw Inger holding court in all of her rock star finery, walked across to room, and introduced himself by telling her that he wanted to sign her to a record deal if she had a band.

There was a lot of internal traffic at the label in 1990-1991, and it was difficult for a new band to get the right slot on the release schedule. Lots of people like to share the story of Inger’s frustration with the waiting and how she chose to express it, but I think that story has obscured just how good this band always was. If you want the dirt, go find it for yourself.

The Nymphs got lumped in with the hair bands and never got invited to hang out with the self-styled kool kids. Their album finally hit the stores in October 1991, just a month after that other big DGC record. The fact that they’d worked with Bill Price, the man behind the boards for London Calling earned them zero points with snobs in the rock press.

They reinvented that song Paul McCartney wrote for Badfinger on a UK EP that should’ve woken up a few of those cloth-eared hipsters, but no such luck.

I have always loved Tom’s story of meeting Inger and especially love that his radar was 100% right on.

8-Track of the Day

Gov. Walz courts the small but influential 8-track vote.