Covering the Dent

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Ten Albums that Have Influenced my Taste in Music

I have been tasked to choose ten albums that have influenced my taste in music. One album a day for 10 consecutive days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Every day I will nominate someone else. (If you're not interested, not a problem)

Day 10

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
There are SO many more albums that I could have selected for this final spot, but I ultimately went with Riot's "Thundersteel" tune. This is a live version of the cassette that Scott Golden brought to my house in summer 1989. I remember being flabbergasted by the guitars and the double bass drums and then the vocals! It was a gateway band to many other bands in the same genre - I've never forgotten the way it made me feel on that day. The video below is from a 2018 concert.
You remember concerts, right? Sigh....

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Day 9

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.

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Day 8

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
Motley Crue introduced me to the Beatles, thanks to "Shout at the Devil" as crazy as that sounds. In 1984, my parents took my brother & I on a vacation from Iowa to CA. We were in northern CA, when the four of us went into a KMart and emerged with a cassette tape for each of us to play on our Ford Econoline's cassette tape player. Dad got Billy Joel's "An Innocent Man," Mom got ... I think Olivia Newton-John's Greatest Hits, and I don't remember what my brother got. Me? Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil" and, believe it or not, that album made it into the rotation as we traveled south, first to San Francisco, then to Hollywood, then east to Las Vegas and then CO for a whitewater raft trip down a river.
In the liner notes for my cassette tape, it revealed that the tune "Helter Skelter" was written by someone named "Lennon/McCartney" and I had no idea who that was until I got back home and found out, though in those pre-Internet days, I don't remember exactly how...
Anyways, the song that introduced me to the Beatles!

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Day 7

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
My grandma was my biggest supporter of my love for music and I always think about how poetically awesome it is that she bought my first album. We went to the Collins Road KMart in 1980 and I came home with it ... and Mom was NOT happy! Back in the day, a cassette tape was ~$13. She had told Grandma that I could get a 45 record, which was under $5, not a $13 cassette tape. Anyways, this album was popular and, to this day, I have never watched the movie.
This tune is still one of my favorite love songs.

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Day 6

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
Before Bayside, there was Count the Stars. Never get tired of hearing this album, even after all these years, at least once a week. I couldn't pick a single tune - I never skip any of these tunes.

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Day 5

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
Before Bayside, there was Count the Stars. Never get tired of hearing this album, even after all these years, at least once a week.

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Day 4

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
I wish I had tracked how many hours I spent air drumming to this album. I was proud of myself when I could nail the intricate parts in this tune.

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Day 3

Note:
Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album because I sincerely hope you take a few minutes to hear a band you may not have heard before.
Today's album came into my life in 1997. I was writing music reviews for http://www.dailyvault.com and was starting to receive many promo CDs in the mail. This promo CD for a band actually came in a big Federal Express soft envelope with ~20 other CDs. Somehow, this CD slid under my couch and was probably stuck there for a couple of days before I found it. Bigwig instantly became one of my favorite punk bands because of how raw, under-produced, and short the songs were - the entire album is barely 30 minutes! This is their cover of the theme from "Cheers" to give you a taste of their style.

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Day 2

Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album. Over the years, I have grown to truly appreciate the way Liberty Devitto contributed to BJ's tunes - I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the drum intro.

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Day 1

Note: I have to post *one* of the tunes that was on this album that, as an impressionable 2nd grader, made me want to play drums. Somehow, my family had this album on 8-track tape.

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Is This a Love Song? Damn Right!

Editor's Note: This is the 9000th post on this blog!
Bigwig is one of my favorite punk bands. I have known of their existence since 1997 and, if it were not for me, there would be zero reviews of the band on Daily Vault - Bigwig! I sometimes question whether the lyrics to a tune can qualify it as a "love song" because, if you can say a song is a love song only by its lyrics, these are truths in my life: Bigwig wrote a tune called "Moosh" and it is most definitely a love song.

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We sat on a curb after a party
And I'll never forget how she looked at me so sweet
We traded thoughts we traded secrets
And I never thought I'd ever find
A girl that made me so complete
I can remember the taste of our first kiss
I can't remember a time I felt like this
She don't care that I'm always broke
And she always laughs at my dumb jokes
I can remember the time that we first met
I can remember the first words that you said
She must have stolen the stars and set them in her eyes
Cause she blinds me with her smile
Everything is alright
I haven't felt this good in so long
And I never felt something ever feel so right
And I've been away for a while
I can't wait to see her smile
And I'm driving home so far from here
And I hope I get to see her tonight
I can…

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This Poor Publicity Team...

Throughout the years I wrote music reviews for dailyvault.com, I would receive promo CDs with a promo kit. I sincerely wish I had saved every promo kit I received as I read some whoppers. Some promo kits were structured well, tracing through a band's history to provide context for the enclosed CD, while other promo kits were so brief, there was no structure, meaning there would be a piece of paper that had a couple of sentences along the lines of "Enclosed is a CD. Hope you like it. Thanks." I admit those brief promo kits achieved their purpose and didn't need to say a lot more than that because, frankly, the enclosed CD was the resume and the promo kit was the cover letter telling me to evaluate the resume.

My point is that I would sometimes get promo kits for a band that felt like it was a resume for a high school kid who hasn't done anything! One promo kit once cited a long list of bands that the members of the current band had been a member of ... none of them ever playing outside of their city. For example, if I was promoting a band that had ex-members of Shotgun, Iowa Beef Experience, Horny Genius, Sludgeplow, and Critical Gopher, would you know any of those bands? I doubt it, but man, that promo kit acted as if I should know all of those bands and that by a former member of those bands, I should give this new band accolades. Yeah, whatever.

All that said, I truly feel sorry for New West Records, who sent me the following email. The Glands released 2 records that are out-of-print. The frontman for the group died in 2016 so they are releasing 23 tracks that use recordings he made over 20 years and the remaining members of the band did a lot of research to find the 23 tracks. All of that is said more beautifully than I just summarized it below. Will the Glands are going to become my next Bayside / Count the Stars / Bigwig / Spitalfield - all bands I discovered and adore thanks to promo kits like the one below? Time will tell.

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ATHENS, GA CULT LEGENDS THE GLANDS’ TWO-DECADES-IN-THE-MAKING THIRD RECORD DOUBLE CODA TO BE RELEASED VIA NEW WEST RECORDS ON NOVEMBER 9th, 2018 

THE BAND’S COMPLETE CATALOG TO BE REISSUED AS STANDALONE TITLES AND COMPILED IN THE LIMITED-EDITION I CAN SEE MY HOUSE FROM HERE BOX SET 

NPR MUSIC PREMIERES UNHEARD SONGS “SO HIGH” AND “ELECTRICITY” TODAY 

"...Do whatever you can to hear these records — they're ripe for re-discovery." - NPR Music

“You couldn’t make a movie about band life in the 2000’s without The Glands all over the soundtrack.”  - James Mercer of The Shins

“That self-titled second Glands album was my soundtrack for 2000 … and truly one of my favorite albums ever made by anyone, anywhere.”- Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers

“If it’s possible to wear a CD out with too much usage (it’s not) I did it (I didn’t because it’s not possible). - David Cross

The Glands by Sean Dungan 

On November 9th, 2018, New West Records is set to release the two-decades-in-the-making Double Coda, the fabled third album by the Athens, GA cult favorite the Glands, along with definitive reissues of their two long-out-of-print LPs, Double Thriller (1996) for the first time on vinyl, and The Glands (2000) featuring the band’s original 19-song sequence including 5 rare songs. Frontman Ross Shapiro passed away from lung cancer in 2016 at the age of 53, and the 23 tracks on Double Coda were compiled from recordings he had been making for nearly two decades.

Today, NPR Music premiered the video for Double Coda’s lead-off track “So High,” along with an eclectic new song called “Electricity” and a preview video of the I Can See My House from Here box set. They state, “The Glands may be the greatest band you’ve never heard of” and of Double Coda, “Like Double Thriller, like The Glands, every single one of these 23 tracks is a hit, and a testament to Shapiro’s warped-yet-grounded sensibility.” See the “So High” video and hear “Electricity,” HERE.  Standard editions of Double Thriller, The Glands, Double Coda, and the limited I Can See My House From Here box set are available for pre-order now via NEW WEST RECORDS.

The epic, 23-track Double Coda serves as the anticipated third and final record from the band, with final production overseen by founding member and drummer Joe Rowe, bassist Derek Almstead, and Glands producer David Barbe (longtime Drive-By Truckers producer and bassist for Sugar with Bob Mould).  While all three titles will be available individually across digital platforms, on CD, and standard black vinyl, also released will be the limited edition 5 LP I Can See My House From Here box set compiling the three albums exclusively on colored vinyl -- Double Thriller pressed on electric pink, The Glands on Coke bottle clear, and Double Coda on clear vinyl.  

The box set will also include a 52-page book featuring an essay by the journalist Stephen Deusner, countless unpublished photos, and testimonials written by fans, friends, and fellow musicians from Athens and beyond, including James Mercer (the Shins), actor/comedian David Cross, Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), Kurt Wagner (Lambchop), Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), Joey Burns (Calexico), Tim Rutili (Red Red Meat, Califone), Andrew Rieger and Laura Carter (Elf Power), Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), John Davis (Superdrag, the Lees of Memory), Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon, Pylon Reenactment Society), Parker Gispert (the Whigs), T. Hardy Morris, film director Lance Bangs, Christopher Lopez (the Rock*A*Teens), the acclaimed visual artist Wayne White (whose painting is featured on the cover of the Glands’ self-titled album), and many more.  

“In many crucial ways the act of making music -- almost always surrounded by friends, usually jamming at his house on Sunset Drive -- was so much more important and rewarding than releasing that music or dealing with labels or arguing with promoters or doing interviews,” Stephen Deusner states in his essay about the band.  “Ross lived for the spark of creation… Given how meticulous he was about his music and how dismissive he was about the music industry, it’s a miracle we have those two albums at all, not to mention the third LP in this set. We lost a unique human being and a remarkable voice, a crucial thread in the pilled fabric of Athens, a man who wrote songs that were hilarious and intensely sad, witty and deeply weird: snapshots from a Southern bohemia of his own making.”  

Of the new Double Coda, band member Derek Almstead states, “As a fan of the music and as a fan of Ross, it was a labor of love to get this set out, to get as much of the music out as possible and into the ears of the people who loved him.  A lot of the material came from CD’s he’d give us at band practice, like ‘Here’s some stuff I’m working on.’ It might have the vocals buried or it might not be finished. I found the best versions of the songs and put together a three-CD set, something like sixty songs.  We whittled that down to what Double Coda is.” 

Says drummer Joe Rowe, “The three of us -- Derek, David Barbe, and me -- all did a lot of research to find everything that Ross had given us over the years.  Derek took all of Ross’s hard drives and went through them, and it turned out that there’s maybe a dozen songs that sounded like they were finished. They just needed to be mixed. Then there was some stuff that was already mixed, already finished.  The record is all the stuff we could find that we felt really confident about. It took a while. It was hard. There were some days when I just couldn’t deal with it because of Ross’s passing. It was just too heavy to think about. But most of the time I felt like I was able to push it forward, even just a little.”  

Rowe continues, “It’s been eighteen years since we’ve released anything, but in rock and roll, mystery always seems to help a little bit. There’s always been a little mystery with the Glands.” 

The Glands Double Coda Track Listing: 

1. So High

2. Pleaser

3. Electricity

4. Possibilities

5. Every Time I Listen to a Stranger 

6. Todd Work

7. Sofa

8. Clover

9. Have Your Cake

10. Piano Jazz

11. Great Waves

12. Pie

13. Rose

14. Atmosphere

15. Rufino Tamayo

16. A Boy Without a Head

17. Tom Robertson

18. Sadie Song

19. Peter Acoustic

20. Body and Soul

21. (A Screwed Up Way of Saying) I Want You

22. Feelies

23. Save a Place for You

The Glands I Can See My House From Here Box Set Track Listing:

Double Thriller (1996)

1. Sunshine Happiness

2. Free Jane 

3. Pretty Merrina 

4. Grey Hats 

5. Two Dollar Wine 

6. Ruddy’s Waltz 

7. Welcome to N.J. 

8. World Half Over 

9. This is The Coat 

10. Call Me Doctor 

11. No. Zero 

12. Skin 

13. The Virgin Loses Again 

14. Son-O-Mine 

15. Two Dollar Reprise 

The Glands (2000)

1. Livin’ Was Easy 

2. When I Laugh 

3. Swim - Prelude 

4. Swim 

5. Mayflower 

6. Lovetown 

7. Straight Down 

8. I Can See My House From Here 

9. Fortress 

10. Work It Out

11. Soul Inspiration

12. Ground 

13. Favorite American 

14. Breathe Out 

15. U R The Mountain

16. Something In The Air

17. Holiday Walk

18. Head That’s Mine

19. Doug’s Hall Rag

Double Coda (2018) 

1. So High

2. Pleaser

3. Electricity

4. Possibilities

5. Every Time I Listen to a Stranger 

6. Todd Work

7. Sofa

8. Clover

9. Have Your Cake

10. Piano Jazz

11. Great Waves

12. Pie

13. Rose

14. Atmosphere

15. Rufino Tamayo

16. A Boy Without a Head

17. Tom Robertson

18. Sadie Song

19. Peter Acoustic

20. Body and Soul

21. (A Screwed Up Way of Saying) I Want You

22. Feelies

23. Save a Place for You

www.TheGlandsBand.com

www.NewWestRecords.com

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14 Bands I Routinely Listen To

More and more, seeing Five Finger Death Punch with Breaking Benjamin & From Ashes to New on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, is becoming very appealing. I've been on a "modern rock" kick lately. These bands are routinely in my ears (listed in alphabetical order)

1. Breaking Benjamin
2. Chevelle
3. Five Finger Death Punch - The 10 best Five Finger Death Punch songs, chosen by Zoltan Bathory
4. Godsmack
5. Papa Roach
6. Shinedown 

 in my Windows Media Player playlist. However, that doesn't mean I haven't been dabbling in "the classic rock bands" like (listed in alphabetical order)

1. AC-DC (the groove on "Givin the Dog a Bone" &  "Shake A Leg" specifically have captured my attention)
2. Judas Priest
3. KISS
4. Metallica
5. Rush

However, that doesn't mean I haven't forgotten my "favorite bands" like (listed in alphabetical order)

1. Bayside
2. Bigwig
3. Count the Stars
4. Ten Foot Pole

Introducing the 'not new' band: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

I became of this band - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - because I read a Craigslist ad. The band was listed as an influence by the person posting the ad so I thought I'd check them out. I found this playlist:

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As I randomly listened to tunes by the band, I was reminded of this Fearless Records compilation:

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Of all the compilations I own, without a doubt, it is my favorite because of this tune by Bigwig (my all-time favorite punk rock band).

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Editor's Note: This is the first post to EVER use the Punk Rock label.

Holy Buckets of Forgetfulness!!!

One of my recent rediscoveries in life is how damn much Bigwig, that punk band from New Jersey that taught me there are alternates to Green Day's commercialized - no, I'm specifically saying "commercialized" because I like Green Day and would never use adjectives like "bad" or "awful" to describe them - punk rock. Years ago, seeing Bigwig at Gabe's Oasis was beyond awesome. I wrote about their debut on dailyvault.com and the rest of their releases here. I happened to come across a concert on youtube that they played in 2015! I didn't know they were still a band!!!

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Discovered

I have the same sensations dripping through all the parts of my mind and ears and eyes! It feels like exactly like when I discovered Bayside, Count the Stars, Bigwig, and Dexter Danger!

Checking In

Nothing is better than sitting @ the PC and listening to some classics:

1. Dynamite Boy - Somewhere in America
2. Bigwig - An Invitation to Tragedy & Reclamation
3. Metallica - Master of Puppets
4. Rush - Moving Pictures

Bigwig & A Single Thought

It's 8:21. Alex has basketball practice from 10-11 @ the NL Rec Center. How to prep? Listen to Bigwig and lose myself...

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Almost a day of Rest...

I played in the Euchre tournament last night with my co-workers. I played 6 games. I started out really good, winning the first two games. Then the cards started to be poor. I lost the next 2 games. All in all, it was a good time and fun to be with the people I only know as co-workers to see what they are like outside of work.

I got a note from the singer of Angel Blake, thanking me for my review of their CD. Their new CD comes out soon but there is no US release date.

I put in a couple of press pass requests to some shows - Rush in Moline, IL, & a Motley Crue Fest tour stop in Milwaukee - so I'm hoping one or both works out. Getting a press pass to a show can be a frustrating thing. I always seem to run into issues and when I do, it's never fun.

The first time I ever had a press pass for a show was in January 1994. I had interviewed VoiVod's drummer on the phone and then was told I could go to their gig opening for Fight in Cedar Rapids. What a great show Fight put on! I still remember Rob Halford looking around 3Rd Street Live, smiling, and remarking, "I like this place. Maybe I should buy it." Wouldn't that have been amazing?!? Of course, I bought into his remarks hook, line, and sinker.

I remember going to see Everclear & Filter at the IMU in Iowa City. I thought I had two press passes but b/c the tickets were so cheap <$10?>, my friend had to buy a ticket. Actually, the ticket person went 2 for 1 on a ticket because there was someone else there who was supposed to be getting in for free as well. Everclear rocked the house. I saw the lead singer but was star struck and didn't approach him.

The worst time was in August 1998. A publicist called me and asked me if I wanted to interview Slaughter's Dana Strum in person prior to their gig in Des Moines, IA, at the Iowa State Fair. I remember jumping through all sorts of personal hoops to make that happen. Megan was 2 so I had to make sure she was 'covered,' find someone to go with. It ended up that I drove our (then) new van to Des Moines. I had promised my wife that since it was our new van, I would not drink and drive - which no one should ever do. There was a group of 6 of us (I think) and the other 4 had tickets to the show. My friend and I were going to go to the ticket office and pick up two press passes. When I got to the will call window, my name wasn't on the list. As show time came and went, I was forgotten. I had driven nearly 2 hours to interview and see a band and the best I could do was to stand outside the grandstand and hear the bands. Sober and upset, my friend and I walked around. It seemed surreal but every one had big glasses of beer. We ended up seeing the country singer that sings "Butterfly Kisses" in a tent and the world's largest reptiles.

Things like this have happened since - not the reptiles - but showing up for a concert and not having a ticket. The Poison show in Des Moines, IA, on Father's Day weekend a couple of years ago was like this. I wasn't on the list but I told the lady I was supposed to be so she gave me a press pass and one for my friend. I was supposed to see Nickelback and that pass fell through. Even at a small venue, my name seems to never be on the list. I was supposed to see my beloved Bigwig play at Gabe's Oasis (now called the Picador) and I wasn't on the list. In that case, $6 was worth the excellent show.

So it seems like every time I have high hopes for seeing a show on a press pass, it falls through. I'm not even at 50/50 of thinking I have a press pass / total times I've thought I've had one. I'm prbably at 15% of the time that the press pass works for me. The most recent time it did was seeing Godsmack, Breaking Benjamin, and Hour Cast in Moline, IL I went up to the will call window, showed my driver's license to prove who I was, and wham! an envelope with two tickets were handed to me. Perfect seats too!

As you might expect, there are a lot of good concerts coming around the Midwest. Rock 108 does a decent job of keeping their concert calendar up-to-date but what I don't understand is why Rush isn't on that calendar. And, if you go to the Lazer 103.3 website, they don't list Rush in Moline, IL, either. Lazer 103.3 and Rock 108 serve the same audience in two different markets. KRNA, based in Cedar Rapids, serves the same audience and directly competes with Rock 108, based in Cedar Falls..That's why Tantric in Cedar Falls @ the Reverb in Cedar Falls, isn't on the KRNA concert calendar, even though KRNA plays Tantric - I've heard them on KRNA.

Not only do I wish press passes would materialize when the publicist tells me they will, I wish there was a single site for all concerts in IA, MO, WI, IL, NE, and MN. Maybe I need to use this blog as the perfect concert calendar!

In the meantime, Megan's pitching clinic was cancelled due to the weather but Alex still has practice so I'd better go.