Two Words For The Rock Hall: Alice Cooper

When I heard that KISS were among the nominees up for induction into this year's class of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I just about fell outta' my chair. I mean, KISS? I've got two words for you, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame: Alice Cooper.

Sure, KISS sold more records and enjoyed a longer run on top, but Alice Cooper provided the blueprint for not only Gene, Paul, Ace, and Peter's act, but for the countless other theatrically based "shock-rock" bands that have come since — from Twisted Sister and Motley Crue, to Slipknot and Marilyn Manson. Most, if not all of these bands owe their very existence to Alice Cooper — a fact that many of them readily will admit to being true. At least, the smart ones will.

Beginning with the album Love It To Death, the original Alice Cooper band had a short, but phenomenal run as the biggest rock and roll act in the world in the early seventies, with a string of albums that also included Killer, Schools Out, and Billion Dollar Babies.

During this time, Alice Cooper also revolutionized the idea of rock and roll as theatre. Their elaborate stage shows revolved around the twisted, mascaraed Alice — a uni-sexual character straight out of your worst slasher-film nightmare, who ultimately paid for his crimes with onstage executions that included the electric chair, beheadings and hangings. Alice Cooper were universally reviled by parents, politicians, and the religious right as a result of these shows. Naturally, the fans loved them all the more for it.

After the breakup of the original band, Alice himself enjoyed sporadic success as a solo artist with albums like Welcome To My Nightmare — but with successors like KISS taking the greasepaint and the rock theatre a step further — things were never quite the same again.

It's high time the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame rightfully recognize the band who paved the way for KISS and others like them. Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway, the late Glenn Buxton, and of course Alice Cooper himself. Members of the Academy (or whatever you call yourselves), I submit to you the original Alice Cooper Band.

The Pineapple Thief Are My Latest Prog-Rock Obsession

Music Review: The Pineapple Thief - 3000 days

The Pineapple Thief are a progressive rock band who started out way back in 1999 as a solo outlet for the music of singer/songwriter/guitarist Bruce Soord.

So, if you are already sensing the Porcupine Tree comparisons here — right down to those damned PT initials — then welcome to the club. As was the case with PT's Steven Wilson, The Pineapple Thief's Soord followed a remarkably similar path — eventually recruiting a group of like-minded musicians to make his solo project, The Pineapple Thief, into a full time band.

But before you get your panties into a bunch over this, the comparisons basically stop there. And rather than refer to Pineapple Thief as a lowercase "pt," we shall henceforth call them "TPT." Just so we are straight here...

3000 days is an anthology of the seven albums that TPT have released since 1999's Abducting — which was for all intents and purposes a Bruce Soord solo album. Ten years, 3000 days later and, well you get the picture...

The last mention that I'll make of the Porcupine Tree connection here is the fact that TPT signed to K-Scope Records — who brought this release to my attention — upon the urging of none other than Steven Wilson. Just what I need, another prog-rock obsession, right?

Based upon this two-disc sampling of The Pineapple Thief, I have to admit that, yes, I will very likely be looking further into these guys. What can I say?

On songs like the opening "God Bless The Child" for example (taken from a 2006 album called Little Man), Soord demonstrates an undeniable knack for a simple, yet effective melody — even as the song is drenched in layers of acoustic guitars, handclaps, and distinctly exotic, Indian-sounding percussion. So far, so good.

Next, from last year's Tightly Unwound, comes the song "Shoot First." It starts innocuously enough with a rising drum roll, before breaking into a gorgeous burst of guitars and layered harmonies. And I am finding myself getting increasingly hooked. TPT definitely know which buttons to push.

Fans of Radiohead or The Muse are going to eat this band up — at least once the secret gets out. Like Radiohead, the lyrics take a backseat to the musical textures — they are simple but effective. On "Shoot First," the words "you're a beautiful soul/ in a beautiful world/ but the world was left behind" speak softly, but they also speak volumes.

On earlier songs like "Part Zero" (from the 2003 release Variations On A Dream) — Soord's plaintive cry "I'm doing all I can / but all I get is a suicidal plan" plays against a backdrop of alternately lilting acoustic and bludgeoning electric guitars. This is definitely layered stuff that I suspect will reveal far more depth upon repeated listens.

The bottom line is that I really like what I'm hearing so far. I am also most likely just scratching the surface with this review. Short verdict here? The Pineapple Thief are one of those great little discoveries that are sure to reveal far deeper levels of satisfaction the more I listen to them — kind of like, yes, the way I felt when I first heard Porcupine Tree.

I think I may be in trouble here.

The Pineapple Thief's 3000 days is a great overview of the first ten years of this — for now, anyway — largely unknown band. It will be in stores this Tuesday, September 29.

Be the first on your block. Take it from me.

Yes We Know The Glen Blog is Broken: Working On A Fix We're Fixed...

Yes we see the same crazy shit running across this page as you do did...and we have no idea what caused it. Rest assured, we are still active (not inactive as the strange messages running all across the screen say), and are trying to fix the problem. Updates will be forthcoming.

UPDATE: Problem is fixed, although we had to lose a few things in the process. Our dialog boxes on the side bars (links, etc.) are now gone, replaced by simple headers that I hope to replace with another (smaller) font soon. The "wire-mesh" header and footers are also gone, but if some of your comments are to be believed, many of you didn't like those a whole lot anyway. We also had to lose the top navigation bar (it's actually still there -- it's just "hidden" -- but if you pass your mouse over the top, the boxes will magically appear).

The upshot though is okay...we're a little less fancy-pants looking. But at least we don't have all that weird shit running across the page saying we are inactive, etc. That was apparently the result of a problem that BloggerCoder -- who created our template -- is having with Photo Bucket. We'll leave the speculation there to you.

But there's also a lot to be said for keeping things simple, right? At any rate, we appreciate our readers patience today. And the bottom line is...

Breaking Down The Beatles Remasters -- Snap, Crackle, Pop Baby


Okay, so here's the deal. I'm as excited about The Beatles Remasters boxed set as anybody. Unfortunately, living on the salary of a starving music editor pretty much precludes me from purchasing the whole damn thing right now...which sucks, because I've been salivating for it like the die-hard Beatles nut I am since last week.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that the kind folks at the record label sent me a really nice two-disc sampler to check out. Often, these promotional samplers are badly thrown together sorts of affairs that barely scratch the surface of what such massive undertakings have to offer. Not so in this case.

With 32 tracks spanning the entire career of the greatest rock band in history, this sampler actually offers a great cross-selection of the entire work. And, beyond that, it is certainly a nice little collectors item, and one which only further whets my appetite for the boxed set that I will someday surely buy — once I can actually afford it anyway.

But let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

Because there is both good and bad to report about this much lauded remastering job. Most of it is as thankfully great as advertised though. The first thing you notice about these remastered recordings is that they are both louder, and quite a bit brighter sounding than what we've heard of the Beatles catalog since its sole transfer to CD back in 1987.

This has a particularly noticeable effect on the Beatles early work. "I Saw Her Standing There," to cite one example, literally puts you in the room with the band — which means the guitars crackle like never before.

It also means that the vocals have a bit of a weird echo to them however, which becomes a bit irritating on a song like "Please, Please Me." In that case, though, a never-before-heard guitar accent however saves the day. Even on the so-called "middle period" recordings like "Day Tripper," the vocal echo is a little bit irritating — but the rest of it is so damn clear it doesn't really matter.

The good news here, though, is that despite all of the high end here (and on the early recordings, especially, there is lots of it), Macca's bass also comes through like never before — proving that even back then he was one of the best. More than that, what these remastered early recordings reveal is that the Beatles were one hell of a rock and roll band.

But...Oh...My...God! The acoustic guitar strums on songs like "This Boy" and "Things We Said Today" are magnificent. Likewise, George Harrison's lead guitar has never rang so clear as it does here on songs like "And Your Bird Can Sing."

Unfortunately, such magnificence comes once again at the expense of more of that reverberating echo on the vocal harmonies (except in the case of "And Your Bird Can Sing," where Lennon's voice is out front where it belongs). Again, McCartney's bass is for the most part likewise put nicely front and center here on the songs I've mentioned.

Right about now, incidentally, I'm starting to sense a trend. Wasn't Sir Paul himself involved in the actual remastering?

For McCartney fans, this will be a good thing — but for fans of the Beatles vocal harmonies, a little less so. Still, there is no denying the general improvement soundwise. Echo aside, the sound has much more of a live feel to it. As advertised, it does really put you right in the studio — especially compared to what came before this.

Once I do eventually purchase this boxed set, one of the things I will be most anxious to hear is the soundtrack to Help! — which has always been one of my favorite Beatles records. Something about all those James Bond-ish instrumentals bumping up against the Beatles I guess.

Unfortunately, the sampler I got doesn't include what may be my favorite Beatles song from that album, "The Night Before." It does however include the often overlooked John Lennon gem, "You've Got To Hide Your Away." Like the other songs I've mentioned here, the acoustic guitar sounds just delicious — both clear as a bell, and crisp as a box of Rice Krispies. Snap, Crackle, Pop, baby.

Lennon's "Rain" is likewise a revelation here — his vocal is rightfully put out front, but never at the risk of one of Paul McCartney's best-ever bass performances. I can't wait to hear what they did with the other side of that original Beatles single — "Paperback Writer." By the time we get to Revolver, the harmonies on "Here, There, and Everywhere" are absolutely pristine.

But now, we get to the really good stuff.

By the time of Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles were expanding not only their minds, but their music as well. "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" might seem like a minor track from that album. But here it is an undeniable standout. The sonic layers that envelop the listener play like a kaleidoscope of sen-surround magic. The carnival calliopes and what-not are such that one can literally lose themselves within them. It's like hearing a song you might have overlooked back then — as I mostly did as a thirteen year-old Beatles fan — for the first time.

The songs from The White Album represented here likewise exhibit newfound depth. McCartney's bass on "Glass Onion" — which I never really even noticed before — rumbled through my speakers like an eighties NWA gangsta-rap joint.

By the time of Yellow Submarine's "Hey Bulldog," however, I had to literally drag my jaw off the floor. The stereo separation is nothing less than amazing. The backing vocals are occasionally buried a little, but everything else is as clear as a freaking bell...the guitars, the bass, and, well, you know...

But McCartney's bass is the real star here. Still, Harrison's guitar, Lennon's vocal, and even Ringo's drumming — which is probably some of the most underrated in all of music by the way — can each be heard on their own like never before. "Hey Bulldog" is, on it's own, worth the price of admission.

And then there's "I Am The Walrus." This has always been one of my favorite Beatles songs, and here it sounds positively amazing. The reason I always loved this song is because of the layers of depth — which at the time it was released were pretty much unprecedented for a single.

On the remastered version, each and every one of those layers becomes newly alive — from the cellos and what-not, to the weird backwards-masked vocals at the end from "Everybody Smoke Pot" to the song ending "I Buried Paul" (which fueled the "Paul Is Dead" rumors, and which Lennon always insisted actually said "Cranberry Sauce.")

I've always divided the Beatles into distinct eras — pre and post Sgt. Pepper. For those who favor the rawer sound of the band's early years, The Beatles Remasters put you right in the middle of the recording studio. There are flaws — which mainly boil down to the echo. But the recordings here also sound brighter, crisper, and clearer than ever before.

For fans of the Beatles more intricate latter recordings like Sgt. Pepper and The White Album, you will hear levels of depth here like you've never heard.

Based on this 32-song sampling, if you are a Beatles fan, do not walk, but run like hell to get this. You won't be sorry.

What's Next For Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band?

The end of the road is about two months away, and for many fans of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the big question is what's next?

After spending the past two years circling the globe numerous times on back-to-back tours behind two albums, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform their final show November 22 in Buffalo, NY. The burning question on the minds of Springsteen fans here is, how "final" is final?

The answers to that may have come this week — well, sort of anyway — in a conference call held by band members Steve Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, and Roy Bittan. Those same answers, as reported in articles this week at Billboard and Backstreets magazines (among others), however may have left the biggest question still largely unanswered.

"We are gonna take, I don't know how long — a year, year and a half, two years," Van Zandt said, before adding, "You never know, do ya? It could be the last show, could be the last tour. You never know. We do every show like it's our last show, anyway. But don't wait around; if you're waiting to come see us, come now. This is a good time to see us."

In other words, as to the question of whether or not this is the end of the road called E Street, the answer seems to be kinda', sorta', maybe. Here is what we do know:

The E Street Band does need the break. After two years which saw the band release two albums, lose a member (keyboardist Danny Federici, who lost his battle with melanoma), play the Super Bowl, and tour more or less non-stop, it could be argued that they are coming off one of the most active, but also tumultuous periods of their entire career.

Keep in mind as well, that these are not young men we are talking about here. Despite their advancing ages, it can also be said that the soon-to-be-concluded marathon treks behind the albums Magic and Working On A Dream saw the band playing some of their most high-energy shows ever.

We also know that at least some of the various band members have day jobs to go to back to. Max Weinberg has been going back and forth between the WOAD tour and his duties on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (with his son Jay filling the E Street drum stool on many dates), and Van Zandt has his syndicated Little Steven's Underground Garage radio show. As for the rest of the guys?

Clarence Clemons — whose health has been an ongoing source of both rumor and genuine concern — has a book coming out on October 21, a memoir called Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales. Nils Lofgren has both a solo career and a successful online business teaching guitar lessons. Keyboardist Roy Bittan also has his own solo album in progress, titled Out of the Box, which he hopes to complete in time for a 2010 release.

With that already known, here is what we can make some educated guesses about as to what the rest of the future holds:

Springsteen missed the deadline for a 30th anniversary remastered edition of 1978's Darkness Of The Edge Of Town last year, and is likely to miss it in 2009 as well. But we do know that he is still working on it, and that an eventual release is planned — most likely next year.

Rumors of the set also featuring a bonus DVD with live footage from the legendary 1978 Darkness tour also seem to be pretty solid. The most likely source of this will be footage known to exist from tour stops in Phoenix, Dallas, and New York. Other possibilities for the set include a disc of outtakes, such as the coveted-by-fans full band version of the rare track "The Promise."

However, next year also represents the 30th anniversary of The River, so it is also possible — and even likely — that some sort of remastered version of that album will see the light of day as well. The 1980 double album is known to be a favorite of Steve Van Zandt's, although Springsteen himself has stayed notoriously away from playing such songs from it as "The Price You Pay" at his shows, making it a regular fixture on the wish-lists of some hardcore fans.

With the recent attention to remastering the back-catalogs of classic artists like the Beatles, U2, and the Rolling Stones, you have to figure that the Springsteen camp has been considering this as well. Early albums like The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle in particular could certainly use the digital upgrade. And then, there is always the long rumored Tracks II rarities box to consider. So there is no shortage of possibilities for new Springsteen projects coming down the pike.

A live DVD culled from the past two tours is also a strong possibility. Many of the shows are known to have been filmed, and most agree that Springsteen and the E Street Band's performances from 2007-2009 were among the strongest of their entire career.

As for Bruce himself? The most commonly held wisdom is that a more stripped-down solo album in the mold of Nebraska or Devils & Dust will likely be next, and could be out as soon as next year. A solo acoustic tour, or possibly one with a smaller band would likely follow if this were the case.

But of course the million dollar question is, what of the future of the E Street Band?

In the conference call this week, band members were predictably vague. But it's hard to imagine Springsteen retiring such a recognizable brand name at a time when they are hotter than ever. If Springsteen makes another rock and roll record — which he almost certainly will a year or two down the road — it's hard to imagine a tour taking place without guys like Lofgren, Van Zandt, Garry W. Tallent, and Bittan being on board — as long as they are healthy anyway.

Less likely to be back would be Clarence "Big Man" Clemons — as unimaginable as that might seem to some fans. As frail as some of Clemons health issues are now, the Big Man has been a trooper these past few years, doing his sax solos from his personal throne onstage. I can't imagine him coming back for another year-long jaunt around the world in a couple of years though. Max Weinberg's status is also iffy, given his commitments to Conan O'Brien — although the good news is that his young son Jay stands at the ready to assume the drum kit.

So is this the end of the road for the E Street Band? In its present form, probably. However, my best educated guess is that we will see another tour from some form of Bruce Springsteen's venerable crew — with a few familiar faces as well as some new ones — in about two years.

What's next? Stay tuned.

Porcupine Tree At The Moore: Strange Setlist, Great Show

Concert Review: Porcupine Tree 09/15/09 At The Moore Theatre, Seattle WA

After having waited over two years to see Porcupine Tree in concert, the moment finally arrived this past Tuesday as PT opened the tour for their newly released album The Incident right here in Seattle.

For me, the story of the wait is a simple, but also a frustrating one.

You see, like most of America, up until very recently I hadn't discovered this amazing band. In fact, I missed their last stop here in Seattle on their tour behind the 2007 album Fear Of A Blank Planet by mere days. By the time I heard that album, Porcupine Tree were long gone. Hence the two-year wait for a return visit, as I meanwhile immersed myself in the band's rather substantial back catalog.

So the moment finally came tonight — and there is both good and bad to report. I'll get to the bad part first.

Unfortunately, I can't post a setlist here because of the songs they played during the second set — and yes for you fans out there who have tickets, they do play two sets — I only knew about three songs. For hardcore fans, this will no doubt be good news, as Porcupine Tree dips rather deeply into the vaults for the songs which comprise the latter part of the show.

For recent fans like me however, this meant hearing pretty much next to none of my personal favorites. There was no "Waiting," no "Dark Matter," and certainly no "The Sky Moves Sideways."

In fact, even when they surprised me with songs off of Fear Of A Blank Planet in the second set — there was no title track , and only half of "Anesthetize," the eighteen minute opus from that album. In honesty though, given that song's length, and the fact that PT had a new double album to cover, I was actually surprised to hear that one at all. — albeit in an abridged version. Truth be told, between the surprise of hearing it at all, and the ferocious way it was played, I've got no complaints whatsoever.

The only other minor bitch here was how my tickets — which were purchased through the fan club — were handled. It was basically an unorganized clusterfuck, which in the end proved completely unnecessary.

The whole point was to get a wristband allowing early access — when the seats ended up being reserved anyway. No complaints about the seats — they were 7th row aisle. Waiting for over an hour after the advertised time we were supposed to get them is another story altogether, though. It was a whole lot of waiting for what proved to be nothing. The good news is I met a lot of very nice people standing in line.

But with that now out of the way, this was a great show.

As expected, Porcupine Tree opened with the fifty five minute title track and centerpiece of their great new album, The Incident. Hearing this thing performed live is truly an amazing experience. For me the highlight was Steven Wilson's incredible guitar solo during the "Time Flies" segment, but the entire band sounded amazing — in particular second guitarist John Wesley (who plays a crucial role in recreating this complex album live) and especially monster drummer Gavin Harrison.

Following the performance of the disc-long opus that is The Incident, PT took a short break and then returned for a second set. For hardcore fans who have seen this band many times, the second set was probably a real treat as it leaned heavily on obscure, rarely played songs like "Russia On Ice," for example.

For me, while I was hoping to hear songs I've only recently discovered like "Waiting" and "Sentimental," what I did hear was so good I quickly ran out of reasons to bitch. In the case of "Sentimental," the band went for the Nil Recurring alt-version of the song (which is called "Normal" on that E.P.), which gave Steven Wilson a rather sweet showcase for his acoustic guitar talents. Plus, I got to hear the gorgeous song "Lazarus" from Deadwing, which was another unexpected, but quite pleasant surprise.

From Fear Of A Blank Planet came a rather out-of-the-blue, and quite frankly rather oddly shortened version of "Anesthetize," as well as "Way Out Of Here." Not what I expected, but both sounded great. The lone song from the second disc of The Incident was "Bonnie The Cat," which to me seemed an odd choice — as I'd have much preferred to hear the beautiful "Black Dahlia" or "Remember Me Lover."

But if it sounds like I'm bitching here, I'm actually not. Not at all. This was an amazing show. In a lot of ways it reminded me of when I used to go to see Pink Floyd shows in the seventies hoping to get the hits, and instead seeing Floyd open the show with their latest opus, and maybe getting a few things I know in the second set. I admired them for that then, much as I admire Porcupine Tree now.

If this tour plays anywhere near you, do not miss it.

Porcupine Tree Return With Epic Prog On The Incident

Music Review: Porcupine Tree - The Incident

On the first few initial listens, Porcupine Tree's The Incident has both the look and feel of being the British progressive rock band's masterpiece.

Everything about this album — from its elegantly photographed cover art, to the fifty-five minute title track that takes up all of disc one — screams prog-rock epic. In these rather lofty aspirations, The Incident mostly succeeds. But there are a few bumps along the road to getting there.

The distribution of the songs for one thing, is, well a little weird. Clearly the epic track "The Incident," is intended to be the focal point. But in doing so, the four tracks on the second disc, which together comprise all of twenty minutes plus change, make them feel almost like afterthoughts. Compared to the sprawling fifty-five minutes of disc one, disc two comes off as something more like a bonus, Nil Recurring style E.P.

Which is really too bad, because these four songs contain some of the best music on the entire record. "Black Dahlia" is one of those haunting, melancholic sounding short songs that PT mastermind Steven Wilson seems to be able to come up with on a dime. A quiet keyboard intro soon gives way to a rising swell of mellotron voices here, as Wilson intones surreal-sounding lyrics like 'there's a cliche in your eye, file the edges down, soon be underground."

On "Remember Me Lover," Wilson kisses off a former flame with the words "It's so hard to get along, I always know what you're gonna say, and this too, I hated you, I wish you'd learn to keep your mouth shut." Ouch!

Musically, this song goes from another one of those great little melodic hooks that Wilson makes seem so effortless, into the sort of bludgeoning metal crunch that dominated PT's last album, Fear Of A Blank Planet.

Speaking of which, there's far less of that — meaning skull-crushing metal — on The Incident than I expected to see on the followup to 2007's FOABP. In fact, Wilson seems to be favoring the proggier sounds of earlier records like In Absentia and Signify again here. No complaints from me.

The nicest thing about the title track, monster-length aside, is the fact that it is still broken up into fourteen parts, each of which carry their own unique title. So despite the length, it still feels more like a set of stand-alone songs. No Jethro Tull style Passion Play indulgence here.

The mini-tracks range from shorter interludes like the minute and a half or so "Occam's Razor," — which opens The Incident with a blast of metallic guitar — to the eleven minute "Time Flies."

On the latter, Wilson sings "I was born in 67', the year of Sgt. Pepper and Are You Experienced." But musically, Wilson's head seems to be more in tune with Animals era Pink Floyd, and specifically the song "Dogs," then it does with the Beatles or Hendrix. While I want to give Wilson the benefit of the doubt and assume this is more of an homage than a rip-off, the similarities are striking to say the least. "Time Flies" basically plays like a sped-up version of the Floyd song — right down to the guitar soloing that closes it.

Still, and with that minor quibble aside, "The Incident" largely lives up to its advance billing as the rightful centerpiece of this album. It's just a great sounding piece of work.

Lyrically, it follows a loose narrative about a traffic accident Wilson apparently witnessed. Musically, it moves from quieter pieces like "The Seance" to eerie sounding, rhythmically off-kilter stuff like the five minute piece within the piece that is also called "The Incident." Wilson ties together all these elements with his usual great guitar playing, as well as his uncannily great ear for hook-laden melody.

In less gifted hands, something this ambitious might not have worked. But what has always separated Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree from many of their prog and metal peers, is the way PT focus on the songcraft first — even with that occasional fifty five minute long opus.

The Incident is a great new album by one of the best kept secrets in music (at least in America). It arrives September 15 just in time for their tour, which also kicks off this Tuesday in Seattle. I can't wait.

The Beatles And What A Drag It Is Getting Old

What a drag it is getting old.

Okay, so it was actually the Stones who wrote that line. Regardless, it was still the Beatles who actually changed my own life, for better or for worse.

Unlike my Blogcritics colleague Josh Hathaway, who did such a wonderful job this week talking about the Beatles in his New Album Releases column, I was actually there. Never mind the fact that I was about twelve years old at the height of Beatlemania, and roughly thirteen by the time it was all falling apart...

The fact is, it still changed my life forever.

I wouldn't be writing this column right now, were it not for that fateful night in 1964 when my parents allowed me, a seven-year-old boy, to stay up far past my bedtime to watch the phenomenon that would turn America and the rest of the world on its collective, cultural, and especially musical ear on the Ed Sullivan show.

Nor would I have ever eventually fulfilled every dream I ever had as a kid (albeit briefly) of landing a cushy music biz job in L.A. as a young man in the nineties, working for the biggest record producer in the world.

The Beatles, quite literally, changed both my own life, and the rest of the world at large (well, at least the "at large" part). But you already knew that.

These days I spend a lot of time thinking about what might have been with a few different twists and turns here and there, and, yes, about what a drag it is getting old. Like that song (that isn't by the Beatles, by the way — did I mention that?) says.

But this still is, first and foremost, an article about the Beatles.

This past week, the Beatles upgraded their catalog for the first time in some twenty years, with the release of their (finally!) properly remastered catalog, along with a new boxed set available in both stereo and mono — which is as it should be — versions.

And of course, the Rock Band video game franchise also paid tribute to the greatest band of all time this week with their own Beatles edition. The less said about that, the better, at least for right now. Personally, I'd just rather talk about the Beatles and their music.

For those of us who actually lived through it — however young we were (particularly in my own case) — the Beatles story was always one of infinite possibilities. For that reason, it was also one of the greatest, and one of the saddest, stories ever told. For all of the promise there, much, if not most, of it went unfulfilled.

The reason that to this day the sixties are celebrated by some, and reviled by others — yet consistently remembered, relived, retold, and dissected like no decade that has come before or since — is precisely those largely unfulfilled possibilities that they represented. Even for everything that was in fact accomplished, which is considerable.

Personally, and quite admittedly, I saw much of this through the rose-colored eyes (and the every bit as off-colored psychedelic prism glasses) of an idealistic young boy. The Beatles — and to a lesser extent, their contemporaries at the time (Dylan, the Rolling Stones, etc.) — told that story like no artists before or since ever have, and at least in my own opinion, probably ever will.

The fact that they did so largely as the innocent mop-topped boys who will forever be immortalized in history as writing — in about six short years — some of the most amazing songs of all time, makes what they did all the more remarkable. That the Beatles went from "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to Sgt. Pepper during the years from 1964 to 1967 is something that I simply defy any recording artist today to duplicate. Ever.

Not possible in my own estimation.

Granted, the times had much to do with it. But the fact is, I don't believe such a feat is even possible today. Not when the recording industry exists in the present vacuum of instant access via the internet (often at the risk of the art, and how it actually sounds), and the short attention spans such instant aural gratification produces and, in fact, encourages.

The fact that the old-school record industry has acted re-actively, rather than pro-actively, to this revolution in the way that music is actually distributed — what's left of that old system is essentially just playing catch-up even at his late date — provides precious little cause to be encouraged about anything like the Beatles ever happening again.

Sorry to burst that particular bubble...

So for now at least, all we have are the memories of what could have been.


I, for one, can remember when my natural parents just couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about when it came to the Beatles. Earlier this week, I was reminded by one of them of how he once referred to the Beatles (and bands like them) as the "devil's music" — which is another story, best saved for another time.

But my response back then, as a twelve-year-old boy, remains the same now as it was then.

And I believe that time has proved me absolutely correct in that regard.

I told my Mom at the time — who, just for the record, wasn't that parent who assured me that I'd burn in hell, on the very same day he gave me the Magical Mystery Tour album for Christmas, for actually listening to it, I might add — that the Beatles would be remembered for all eternity in the same breath as people like Bach and Beethoven.

You had to be there, is all I can say.

But I believed it then. I believe it now. And I believe history has borne me out on that same, simple, indisputable fact.

So I haven't heard the new Beatles remasters yet. Can't afford 'em, one of the many casualties of the Bush-years war on working class America (again, a story best saved for later) that I unfortunately am.

But what I am expecting to get in the mail any day now is the sampler of the big, bad-ass Beatles box the record company is sending out to reviewers like yours truly.

I can't wait.

The plan is to take the twelve or so tracks there, and do a side by side comparison with the last Beatles CDs — from 1987 — that EMI put out in what were supposed to be the end-all, be-all definitive versions of these classic albums. Which, of course, they weren't.

There were complaints then, and there may well be complaints now. I mean how exactly do you re-manufacture a unique moment in history? I'm not really sure, and I am doubly sure that, even now, the recording engineers really aren't either.

Whatever...

But everything I've heard tells me this is well worth the wait. I certainly hope so.

Because if nothing else, the story of the Beatles reminds those of us who were there that it was a time of infinite possibilities, and that the Beatles provided a soundtrack that has stood, and will continue to stand, the test of time for generations to come long after the Rockologist and those of my generation have doused our last roach.

I doubt very much that the Beatles ever intended it. But nothing before or since has ever come close. Like it or not, it's a matter of record.

The sad part of this story — as anybody who has seen the way the film Let It Be chronicled how that dream finally fell apart will attest — is how the story finally ended up playing out.

What a drag it is getting old, indeed.

We've Gotten A Facelift: So How Ya' Like Us Now?

With The World Wide Glen now entering it's fourth year of publishing -- at 250,000 plus hits strong we might add (or an average of about 500 a day) -- an update of our original Blogger design was probably long overdue. So here it is. Ladies And Gentlemen, take a gander at our new, improved look and design. In other words, in the words of the immortal Pete Townshend, meet the new boss, same as the old boss -- but with a nicer looking suit.

So a few quick notes on the new look...

First off, let's talk about the things we like about it. Can you say three columns? Yeah, baby!

We've got our links running neatly down the left hand side, along with a (much needed) shorter welcome to the page. The ever popular feed links are also conveniently located there, for those of you who want to receive updates to The World Wide Glen via subscription through Google, Feedburner, or whoever.

Another thing we really like are the buttons running along the top, spotlighting links to such important places as my articles at Blogcritics and my other site The Rockologist. For obvious reasons, the Hire Glen Here link is also prominently featured up top. What can I say folks? Today I "celebrated" my ninth month being out of gainful, full-time work (which is the longest I've ever been unemployed in a single stretch).

The good news is I hope be able to report on some positive developments in that arena in about a week or so. Hopefully by the time I see Porcupine Tree on Sept. 15 in fact...

Anyway, back to our facelift. On the right hand side, you'll find our site affiliations (the aforementioned Blogcritics and Rockologist sites, along with the guys who actually pay me to write and edit over at Technorati). There's also a picture of my ugly mug, and some links to my most recent articles both here and at Blogcritics.

Of course, as is the case with any site upgrade, there are going to be a few bumpy spots along the road. In our case, these have come with our pictures, which have all had to be resized to fit the new look. Tonight, I was able to get through about half of the nearly 400 posts we've posted here since 2005, taking me back to our posts dating to around the middle of 2007.

Some of our most popular articles (like that hot picture of Meadow Soprano we posted in 2006 -- man does that thing draw the horndog traffic!), were updated first. But on a lot of the oldest posts, things are still going to look pretty fucked up. All I can say there is patience, grasshoppers. The plan here, is to complete resizing the pictures on the rest of our articles by the end of next week. Keeping my fingers crossed there.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the new look. I for one, am as excited as a thirteen year old girl at a Jo-Bros concert about it!

Radiohead's Ice Age Gets A Deluxe Thaw On Reissues

Talk to most any longtime Radiohead fan, and they will tell you that the band's glory years came in the mid-to-late nineties with albums like The Bends and OK Computer — the latter of which has been hailed by many of those same Radiophiles as one of the greatest records ever made.

Me? I don't buy it. Not to take anything away from OK Computer — it's an amazing record to be sure. OK Computer is dense, complex, and full of really great songs like "Karma Police" and "Paranoid Android."

But it is also more than a little derivative in places, of late seventies prog-bands like King Crimson, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, and even Uriah Heep (something about that mellotron). Not to say that this is a bad thing, but I've still gotta' call it the way that I see it.

Great listening, yes. Innovative and ground-breaking? Not hardly — at least not in the same way that the Pitchfork crowd might lead you to believe. Sorry.

The fact is — for me anyway — Radiohead's most interesting, challenging music in fact came with their post-millennium work. That's right. I am a proud fan of Radiohead's "Ice Age." While there has never been anything even close to a Radiohead backlash on the same level as, say, there was with Coldplay — the albums Kid A and Amnesiac were still the place where more than a few fans got off of the hipsters bus.

Not me.

In fact, it is with these two albums that I thought things first began to get really interesting. With Kid A and Amnesiac, Radiohead more or less rejected the idea of the big arena rock band wrapped in a post-grunge alternative package that they had become, in favor of something far more stripped down to the bone. And it made for some of the most interesting music of their career.

Critics of these records will often point towards the more experimental, ambient noodlings you'll find on each of them, and on the surface at least, I wouldn't entirely disagree. Songs like Kid A's "Idioteque" and "Everything In It's Right Place," and Amnesiac's "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box" are more like ambient soundscapes than actual songs really.

In that respect, Radiohead's so-called "electronica" records have always reminded me a lot of David Bowie's "Berlin" period with Brian Eno on albums like Low and Heroes. Musically, everything is stripped to nothing but the barest essentials. Lyrically, it isn't that far of a stretch from Bowie's "Lately, I've been, breaking glass in your room again" to Thom Yorke's "Yesterday I woke up feeling like sucking a lemon."

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

But for every cold sounding whirr, beep, and click of those songs, you get something that surprises, and quite often knocks the living shit out of you. On Kid A it's the throbbing bass-runs of "The National Anthem" and Thom Yorke's haunting falsetto vocals on "Optimistic." On Amnesiac it's the droning, jazz-flavored drums and bass of "Dollars And Cents," and the fluid, George Benson meets Duane Allman guitar flourishes of Jonny Greenwood on "Knives Out." Come to think of it, Yorke turned in one hell of a vocal on that one too.

If these albums seem cold in places, many of the songs found there thaw the freeze, and warm things up in a hurry.

The other thing about Radiohead's icy-sounding music from this period is the fact that at exactly the same time they were performing some of the best live shows of any band on earth.

My first Radiohead show — at the Gorge in Eastern Washington in what I want to say was around the summer of 2001 — was one of the greatest live concerts I have ever witnessed. I'd put it on a par with Springsteen shows I attended on the tours behind Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town in the late seventies. It was that good.

Radiohead were a revelation on that hot summer night in the desert. Despite the experimental albums they were touring in support of, they also rocked like one hard-rocking, quite ferocious sounding 'sumbitch.

A few years later, I saw them on the tour supporting the more "rock-oriented" 2003 release, Hail To The Thief, and it was no less explosive. I had seen Springsteen on The Rising tour at Giants Stadium the night before, and flew across country back to Seattle (nursing a really nasty cold and a case of jet-lag to boot), to catch Radiohead at White River Ampitheatre.

While songs like "There, There" and "2+2=5" from Hail To The Thief clearly established that Radiohead were still a formidable rock band, some of the best moments in the show came during chestnuts from Amnesiac like "You And Whose Army?"

I all but forgot I had just seen my hero Springsteen in Jersey.

Anyway, on those three Radiohead records — Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail To The Thief — the chasm between hip alternative rock band, and cool ambient experimentation was bridged once and for all, paving the way for the musical freedom heard on 2007's brilliant In Rainbows. Radiohead music could no longer be confined to labels. It was just Radiohead music.

With that same artistic freedom now having been extended to independence from traditional record label distribution, Radiohead's former label EMI has been hard at work scurrying to squeeze the last drop it can from it's former golden boys. We've already seen deluxe editions of Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer this year, as well as a surprisingly well done Best Of Radiohead CD/DVD compilation. This past week, that cycle was (presumably) completed with double-disc deluxe collectors editions of Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail To The Thief.

The good news here is, that while these deluxe reissues don't represent anything spectacular, they do provide a pretty damn fine upgrade. In each case, the bonuses found on the second disc — a mixture of live cuts, outtakes, and the like — is mostly stuff hardcore fans will already own. Regardless, it's nice to see it assembled individually on each disc where it really belongs.

For those of you who are new to the band, each of these discs also represent a better, more complete introductory point. Most of the essential stuff is included here, so there's no longer any need to seek out all those pricey B-sides and bootlegs.

On a cursory listening, I wasn't able to detect a whole lot of difference between the original recordings and the remastering job done here — if in fact any was done at all. The cover art is also mostly the same, although these packages come in eco-correct, fold-out, double-disc versions.

Still, having live versions of songs like "Optimistic," "Knives Out," and "Dollars And Cents" plays nicely back to back with the original versions. For newbies, this is the place to start. For hardcores, call it a nice little upgrade.