Noise Narcs: A Philadelphia-Based Music Blog

Noise Narcs’ Top Albums of 2011: AVAILABLE NOW

David G — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:52:50 PST

Click here for our top 20, geographic breakdown, individual voter lists, etc. Thanks to all the voters for humoring me. Happy New Years to all.

For real now, my last post: Saying Yes to Blood Feathers

David G — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:47:00 PDT

Even though the blog has been still for many a month now, my love-life hasn’t. After a Russian doll-worthy series of lies, I conned my then-girlfriend into arriving at the PEP Boys parking lot at Broad and Federal in Philadelphia. That is, directly outside the stately row home we met six years ago as roommates. Where the Blood Feathers happened to be playing their beyond-lovely “You’re Welcome.” And Bands in the Backyard happened to be filming. The rest, as they say, is engagement history.

Thank ya’ll. And Kandace, this is the punishment for never posting on Noise Narcs: you become the subject of the post. And the subject of the rest of my life.

The Blood Feathers will be playing Johnny Brenda’s 5th Year Anniversary on Friday, September 30th 9:15PM, with Like A Fox and Matthew O’Neill opening. Tickets are $10, available here.

And you definitely won’t hear about the Revolution on Facebook either. It’s basically not even a thing anymore. RIP Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011)

Christopher T — Sat, 28 May 2011 08:37:56 PDT

Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Culture, Dies at 62:

“You can go into Ginsberg and the Beat poets and Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern word,” Chuck D., the leader of Public Enemy, told The New Yorker in 2010. “He and the Last Poets set the stage for everyone else.”

Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” [Buy Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970)]

Kanye West, “Who Will Survive In America” [Buy My blah blah blah Fantasy (2010)]

Gil Scott-Heron, “On Coming From A Broken Home (Part 2)” [Buy I'm New Here (2010)]

Noise Narcs goes out on a cold white table: Noise Variations on “St James Infirmary”

David G — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:39:47 PDT

So, this is our final “official” post before we enter the blissful sleep of the real world. Thanks for reading. But does anyone mourn the passing of a music blog? I mean, c’mon now: this ain’t no Rolling Stone. Thank God. But if one were to mourn a music blog, there’d only be one way to do it: the immemorial NOLA dirge, “St. James Infirmary.”

It’s a song recorded by hundreds. Of unclear origins—possibly forked from the old English folk song “The Unfortunate Rake,” possibly not. “Written” in the early 20th century, but not recorded until 1928. Multiple claims to authorship, multiple disputed authors. Lyrical variations laid upon lyrical variations: some start in a bar, some in the infirmary. All end in recalcitrant sorrow. A palimpsest of heartbreak. And even the most dreadful versions cannot sully the song’s core: the sorrow of the unrepentant sinner, world-weary but defiant. Defiant but broken.

All the versions, whether they start at old Joe’s bar room or the infirmary, concern a gambling man who confronts the body of his dead lover in the titular infirmary. Thoroughly grieved, he thinks of his own death. But even through the grief, he will not give up his earthly ways. He’s to be buried in high style, with the accouterments of the gambler: a fifth of Chivas, a Stetson hat, or a 20-dollar gold piece. Head held high; heart sunk low; ready for death.

Louis Armstrong

Although Armstrong was not the first to record “St. James,” Robert W. Harwood whose definitive book I Went Down to St. James Infirmary [Buy] and accompanying blog are worth checking out, describes how Satchmo formed it into perfection:

The versions that appeared in Carl Sandburg’s collection of traditional American songs (The American Songbag – ©1927) were written in 6/8 time. They were ballads. One of the significant differences between these songs and the recordings that both included and followed the 1928 Louis Armstrong recording was a change in rhythm – to 4/4 time. With this change in rhythm the song had become danceable. More specifically, one could dance the foxtrot to it. [I Went Down to St. James Infirmary]

So the next time someone says that they don’t get what jazz is all about (it happens), I’m going to give them this definition: beyond the improvisation, jazz is, at heart, grief you can dance to. You can hear it, in all fullness, in Armstrong’s first recorded version, 12/12/1928, Chicago, which for the record, jazz purists, involved no improvisation. Still hits it for me.

Louis Armstrong & His Savoy Ballroom Five, “St. James Infirmary”

But if someone wants something more than a wordy definition for jazz, offer them Armstrong’s languorous version from 1959′s Satchmo Plays King Oliver. It’s possible for somebody not to “get” jazz. It’s impossible to not get this recording. Slowed down to a crawl, with aching harmonization, softly whirling trumpet, and clarinet lines that simply cannot be beat. It’s shocking to hear the difference in Armstrong’s voice; how airy it was in 1928, how effectively he uses his age-grained voice in ’59. And, when he laughs at the line, “she can look this wide world over, but she’ll never find a sweet man like me,” calling himself out as a braggard, he gets to the very heart of the song’s wounded defiance. And lucky for us, every single beat of this song gets it, too. This is the song as I first heard it, this is the song that accompanies me in every sundry sadness. This defines “dirge.”

Louis Armstrong, “St. James Infirmary” [Buy]

Have you picked yourself up from the floor? Your tear holes all plugged up? Good. Although no version, in my mind, touches Armstrong’s take from 1959, there are, unsurprisingly, a multitude of excellent versions of this song.

Allen Toussaint

Let’s ease our way back in with a breezy instrumental version from Allan Tuissant. Even played as a folksy jam, this song doesn’t lose its bite. And there’s nothing not to love with Tuissant’s boogying piano or that upright bass work.

Allen Toussaint, ” St. James Infirmary”

Bobby “Blue” Bland

What? Sick of jazz already? What do you think this is, some sort of indie rock blog? Guess what: blog’s dead, baby, blog’s dead. But fine, we’ll move off jazz. How does a NOLA funeral dirge play as traditional soul? Quite fine, sir, quite fine. And I desperately want to be at this Bland show. Pun! Seriously, damn masterful soul.

Bobby “Blue” Bland, “St. James Infirmary Blues” [Buy]

Lou Rawls

Still sick of jazz? Well, how about some soul jazz, you philistine? Starts off a capella. That voice, man, is a devastating killer. Jesus, Lou, that voice. Then the band kicks in, and it swings. Oh boy does it swing.

Lou Rawls, “St. James Infirmary (Live)”

Cab Calloway

Back to jazz, suckers. For years, I had this version marked down as mediocre, but on re-listen, the cartooniness that I always hated, that always seemed off-color, underscores the song’s essential deep, bleak current. There’s also a Betty Boop cartoon set to this version that I won’t link to because it’s just so goddamned racist.

Cab Calloway, “St. James Infirmary” [Buy]

Wingy Malone

Why include this song? When we already have a superior early dixeland version in Armstrong’s? When you’re already sick of jazz? Because Wingy Manone only had one arm, that’s why. Take that, Rick Allen. Also, sick clarinet solo, ya’ll. You play it so good, indeed.

Wingy Malone, “St. James Infirmary” [Buy]

Eric Burdon and the Animals

Okay. We’re done with jazz, promise. But what the hell is this? This version’s source is the branch that starts at an Irish bar. It has wailing “Oh no” background singers. And a guitar pedaled to sound like a sitar. And then goes from blues into punchy psych-pop guitar. And then ends with jazz rock piano. It’s… Jesus. What the hell is this?

Eric Burdon and The Animals, “St. James Infirmary” [Buy]

The White Stripes

They turn it into a White Stripes song. !Que Sorpresa!

The White Stripes, “St. James Infirmary Blues”

Pete Seeger

I’ve never been a fan of Seegar. His brand of folk always felt too pedantic to me. His voice too reedy. So I wanted to hate this version. Seegar’s thin, twisting voice seems like it’d be an odd choice. But in duet with his banjo, it strikes the core of this song’s despair. It’s plainness is relentless.

Pete Seeger, “St. James Infirmary” [Buy]

Bob Dylan

Given the palimp-cestuous nature of “St. James Infirmary,” it’s only fitting to end this post with a song that’s only derived from it. See, Blind Willie McTell was a blues guitarist from Georgia, born blind in one eye, and then had his sight fade from the other. He wrote the classic “Dyin’ Crapshoot Blues (although his authorship seems to have been, fittingly, a bit of a lie), which borrows liberally from “St. James Infirmary.”

Originally intended for Infidelds, Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell” weaves the twisted history of “St. James” and “Crapshoot Blues” into this gorgeous, dazzlingly self-referential track. Dylan envisions himself travelling the earth in search of the blues, only to repeatedly find that “no one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.” The kicker? Dylan forms the melody from “St. James Infirmary.” A self-portrait of the artist as a copy. An unending circle of borrowing, of the meaningless of authenticity, of genius. And at the end of the song’s fruitless search for authenticity, Dylan, envisioning himself back in his North Country hearth, winks, pointing out the window of Minneapolis’ St. James Hotel. Bring it all—this post, this blog, “St. James Infirmary’—back home, Bobby:

Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Bob Dylan, “Blind Willie McTell”

Noise Narcs out.

Exit Music (for a Blog): Thanks and goodbye from Noise Narcs

David G — Wed, 18 May 2011 09:32:36 PDT

As you, our single digit readers, may have noticed, our posting has “slowed.” Although I’ve had a ton of fun writing about music, bands, and Philadelphia for the past year and a half, Noise Narcs will no longer be regularly updated. At the very least, this site will stay active in its current form until the end of the year, and then I’ll move it to cheaper (read: free) hosting, where it will live in semi-retirement, gathering moss and making future generations snicker. Like a Geocities X-Files fansite. It’s likely that there will be a few more sporadic posts, as whim strikes us, over the next few months. And the site will live on as a portal for our friendly Best Album of the Year poll.

So thank you. Thank you readers. Thank you to all the bands who submitted music. A special thank you to all the bands who submitted who didn’t suck (a surprisingly large percentage).

A big thanks to all the bands who endured our awkward interviews: Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Incan Abraham, Work Drugs, Bridge Underwater, Drew from Blood Feathers, The Eeries, and Grubby Little Hands.

Thank you to our loyal contributing narcs: Christopher “I know how spell psychedelic” T, Cydney “Music to dance/read/write to” A, Billy “I actually know things about music” L, Greg “I’m confused about The National” W, Matt “Gaga” K, Trent “amazing Italian video” W, my brother Aaron “I teach the children of rock stars” G, Katherine “I’m adorable about talking about how I don’t know anything about music but still am willing to post” H, Kenny “stills owes a Mog post” R, Andrew Mattey from Cozy Galaxies, Matt “What’s PBR&B?” S, Miya “Dairyland” T, and Dave “Ugly Furniture” B. And thanks to all of you who contributed to our year end lists: I hope you’ll keep doing it.

Thanks to all of our commenters. At the most spiteful and banal, you made us feel read. At your best, you made us feel challenged, intrigued, and appreciated.

Our sincere gratitude to the bands who played our show in March: Cozy Galaxies, Bridge Underwater, and Grubby Little Hands. You guys killed it, and I’m excited to hear where you guys will be going next.

Thanks to MOG, who ran our advertising. And I say this with all impartiality, if you love music, you should subscribe. Their pitch-perfect streaming has changed, permanently, the way I listen to music. So one last heartfelt advertisement: .

Penultimately, a few shoutouts to a few highlights among the Noise Narc features and posts:

our wonderful “back in time” feature Hot Tub Rock Show
David Lynch Week, which featured, in my opinion, the best overall Noise Narcs post by Billy L: The Voice From Another Place: Jimmy Scott and the Black Lodge
the most hilarious comments definitely go to PBR&B: The Weeknd and Frank Ocean
Chris teaching us about death
interviewing Jeremy Barnes
Matt K’s Oscar piece, which had the highest lol-to-word ratio
Material Lives’ calling Eddie Fisher “the equivalent of [her] Madonna, Prince, or Andre Agassi.”
songs that feature whistling
my best post, a Noise Variation on “Memphis, Tennessee.” Not a brag: any idiot could write well about that perfect song.

This really has been a pleasure for me. And, on Friday, tune in for my last “official” post: numerous versions of the saddest goodbye song I know. It’ll be a real tearjerker, jerks.

Filing the Bar-Kays’ “A Hard Day’s Night”

David G — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:19:13 PDT

File under, music I want to follow me from bar to bar on a long, bingeful night: Bar-Kays, “A Hard Day’s Night” (1968). Also file under: Friday Night. Also see: the entirety of the wonderful Stax-Volt: The Complete Singles 1959-1968.

The Bar-Kays, “A Hard Day’s Night”

Stream Man Man’s Life Fantastic

David G — Wed, 04 May 2011 07:32:32 PDT

Do you like Philadelphian music? Do you like neo-circus (nu-circus?) music? Do you like bands with names like The The, Duran Duran, the Go-Gos, and Talk Talk? Do you have a thing for streaming an album before it’s released? Oh, or a blistering dose of delicious musical explosive weirdness?

Then you’d be wise to jump over to Stereogum to listen to Man Man’s Life Fantastic: Stream.

Yellow Humphrey: Perfect weather music

David G — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:04:01 PDT

Yellow Humphrey's Featherweights

If you’re in Philly, you’re experiencing what the Bay Area experiences 200+ days a year: absolutely perfect weather. In Philly, we get 10 of these. In a good year.

Is it any coincidence that Yellow Humphrey are having a record release show for their debut Featherweights on such a perfect day? Leadsinger Gretchen Lohse first sent me “Low Roses” on April 4th (high 79°, no humidity), and I complained bitterly about having to listen to its thrilling, vernal charms on a beautiful day… in an office. And Featherweights really is the perfect complement to a gorgeous spring day: as light as the title, a folkcountry touch, Gretchen dancing around notes like Zooey Daschenal with the fullness of Neko Case, and a fulsome ratio of the melancholy that all liminal seasons contain. One day, spring too shall pass.

So take note, Philadelphia: you only have eight days of perfect weather left. And quite a few of them should be spent with Yellow Humphrey.

Yellow Humphrey, “Low Roses” [Pay what you want at Bandcamp]

Yellow Humphrey w/ Young Nick Krill & Magic Mike and Eliza Hardy-Jones (of Buried Beds and Spinto Band)
Friday, April 29, 2011 TONIGHT
Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N Frankford Ave, Philadelphia
$10 [Tickets]

Turkeys, Hamm’s, and Pepperoni Eyes: Personal & The Pizzas at the Knockout

Billy L — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:31:53 PDT

Between 2/26 and March 7, two Narcs were out ~~vacationing~~ working on a piece on Portland’s and San Francisco’s music scene. This second of three parts finds our ~~young~~ adventurers in search of San Francisco’s best New Jersey-style pizza.

It’s always a nice surprise: You go to a show to see one band, but another band on the bill gives such a killer performance that the other sets pale in comparison, and you wonder why you weren’t there to see that band all along.

During Noise Narcs’s visit to San Fran back in early March, we hopped on a bus on a Wednesday night and headed down to Bernal Heights to hit up a show at the Knockout. It’s a no-frills dive bar & venue, with the bar and the stage/dancefloor separated by a cut-out wall. A tight grid of album covers adorns the top section of the bar side of that middle wall, and below that, “LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL” is painted right-to-left in backward letters, which become legible when you look into the big mirror above the bar.

The bar had an okay selection of draft beers, but the most popular beverage choices seemed to be Tecate tallboys and 12-oz cans of Hamm’s, which was a new one for me in the pantheon of cheap, hipster-certified brews. Wikipedia says it’s a Minnesota beer but that it had plants in San Francisco:

The Hamm’s brewery in San Francisco opened in 1954 at 1550 Bryant Street, close to the Seals baseball stadium. The brewery closed in 1972. In the early 1980′s, the beer vats were rented out to punk rock bands, and it was a used as music studios until the building was renovated and turned into offices.

Also, you must check out this old Hamm’s commercial.

When we first walked in, we caught the tail end of Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick. The little we heard was gentle, pleasant rock; it would turn out to be quite a contrast for what was up next.

As the second band was setting up, a few things diminished our expectations for their set: (1) The drummer took his sweet time to tune his snare, and played a loud flam after each turn of the drum key; (2) The guitarist’s strap was made of chain — like, regular chain.

Rocking Wayfarers, the lead singer/guitarist, greeted the crowd with, “Alright, you turkeys. We got some music for ya,” and launched into some straight-ahead rock’n’roll, a I – IV – V tune called “Pepperoni Eyes,” as in, “Pepperoni eyes / She’s got those pepperoni eyes.”

Personal & The Pizzas, “Pepperoni Eyes”

[Buy]

The band was called Personal & The Pizzas, as in, “I’m Personal, and this here’s my band, The Pizzas.” The jokey name, dumb lyrics, and strict adherence to the Stooges/Ramones formula of no-frills, two-and-a-half minute songs could have gotten old fast, had it not been for the band leader’s compelling stage presence and the gusto with which he served up his Jersey greaseball shtick.

When an audience member rudely called out the bassist — a tall, lanky, balding, gum-chewing dude in a leather jacket — for sporting a slightly uneven handlebar mustache, the singer turned to his bandmate and said, “You just stand there and look pretty and blow some bubbles for me.” It might not be that funny on the page, but when delivered with an exaggerated Jersey accent from another era (cf. intro to “Brass Knuckles”), it killed.

The band has an album, Raw Pie, out on Oakland’s 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. It’s a slice of what they’re about. But for the full meal, this is a band best experienced live.

Personal & The Pizzas, “Brass Knuckles”

[Buy]

RIP Poly Styrene

Christopher T — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:52:46 PDT

In 1976, Poly Styrene (Marion Elliott-Said) of Brixton, after catching the Sex Pistols play an early show, placed an ad in a couple British music papers in search of “Young Punx Who Want to Stick It Together.” The result was the album Germ Free Adolescents by X-Ray Spex and the hit single “Oh Bondage Up Yours!”

The first wave, braces-wearing, daughter of a dispossessed Somali aristocrat, proto-riot-grrl, Hare Krishna convert succumbed to cancer on Monday at the age of only 53.

Check out an early interview on youtube here.

Check out the video for the single “Virtual Boyfriend” from her recent solo album Indigo Generation here.

X-ray Spex, “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” [Buy The Anthology from Amazon]