Category: music

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From the Archives, #2

You can all thank Kate for this (and the remainder of these that I post).

Mark Goodier show, live from Belfast. We were on fire, if I do say so myself. It was one of the best, if not the best radio performance I remember doing.

True story: at one point during a stage dive a necklace given to me by a very dear friend exploded. I didn’t realize until after the gig, at which point I jumped into the audience and started collecting pieces of the necklace.

Of course, being Petrols fans, a bunch of folks immediately cleared out a big circle, and four or five got down on their knees with me and picked up all the pieces. I still have the necklace to this day – my friend Victoria rebuilt it when I saw her next.

<sniff>

I <heart> you guys.

s.

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From The Archives

Hey all –

Here’s a track that probably very few of you have or ever heard. It’s on a Beefheart tribute album called Fast & Bulbous that came out in ’88 (holy sh*t that sounds like a long time ago). It’s interesting for a number of reasons. First, it was recorded around the time of End of the Millenium, so we’re still messing around with samples and dance rhythms. Listen closely at the end, and you’ll hear the Ohio Players. That’s right, the Ohio Players. And it’s perfectly in tempo, and in the right key!

Then there’s also a “Big Flame-esque” section that we added to the song. It’s interesting as a historical artifact – it sounds a bit glued-in to my ears now – but taken on its own, it does sound “Beefheartian.” (I remember John O’Neill saying this about Circusville at our second or third gig at the Mean Fiddler in 1986) And it just goes to show the vast spectrum of music we were absorbing at the time – from Curtis Mayfield to Big Flame, Beefheart to Bambatta. It’s no wonder we encountered a few growing pains.

Anyhow, enjoy. I’m not sure whether to put this up as a podcast or a download – I guess for now I’ll put it up as an in-page player, and also as a link to download.

Oh – freakin’ far out. The PodPress plugin does it all automatically for you. Thanks, PodPress!

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The Politics of Dancing

As some of you have noticed in the forum, it has been awhile since we’ve posted to the blog, and there are rumours a-flying, so let me take a moment to try and put things into perspective.

Things were moving along very well – maybe a little too well. As noted below, we were accepted for a SxSW slot, and we made progress with both UK and US agents, secured digital distribution for the back catalog (the part we owned, anyway), and a few other things. Once things got to this point, we had to make sure we could meet all the committments, since it was getting close to the time when we’d have to start signing bits of paper.

As it turns out, we couldn’t.

Putting a band (back) together in your 40s is quite a bit different than it is in your 20s. There are jobs, marriages, kids, and hundreds of other things to consider. The matrix gets even more complex when you try to align these elements across all the band members. When one person can get time off, the other has a deadline at work. Where one person needs X to pay the bills, another needs Y. Suffice it to say that it’s a far cry from “Get in the van! We’re going to France!”

So where does that leave us?

The folks at SxSW were very understanding, and invited us back whenever we’re ready. The agents understand that this is going to be tricky. Ditto for distribution, publicity, etc. Hell, we never officially announced that this site was up and running. A handful of you true believers have found it, and that’s heartening in itself. So fret not – we’re not going to be on the road this spring as originally thought. The fall is a possibility, as is spring 2009. It’s still too early to tell.

But definitely stay tuned. It takes a little longer for old guys like us to get a full head of steam going, but we’re definitely headed in the right direction.

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Control

Just saw Control the other night.

I loved it.

Not only was it beautiful to look at, (did we expect any less from Anton Corbijn?) but it was also a great portrayal of what it’s like to be in a band when you’re first starting out. And it was also great that they didn’t glamorize it at all – it was quite bleak, to be honest. And the pacing was quite slow. Some of the folks I went with thought it could have moved along a little quicker, but I thought it was perfect. And the fact that they played all the versions of the songs used in the film was even more impressive.

Definitely worth seeing.

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Watch Out World, Here We Come.

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It’s taken awhile, but we here at Petrols central are finally serious about dusting off the rock tools and treading the boards once again. Why? Well why the hell not is what I say. There have been a number of things over the past few years in particular that have spurred this on.

1) Gang of Four reunion – these guys changed my life back in the day. No, seriously. I listened to the records incessantly, and they were without a doubt the best live band I ever saw. Twenty-odd years later, they came back, and they slayed. They were astounding. They were monumental.

2) Killing Joke reunion – (Raven – RIP). Similar to Go4, in that they came, they saw, they totally destroyed. Interestingly enough this was a week after a much-touted up and coming band (the Rapture, cough-cough) came to town and just blew. I mean totally blew. I’m so sick to death of the post-modern, ironic, “I’m in a band but not really” stance so many bands seem to adopt these days. Seeing the ‘Joke a week after these turds was the perfect antidote. It made me realize why I got into music in the first place.

3) The death of the old music industry – Seriously folks, wave goodbye to the record biz of lore. What’s going to replace it we don’t quite know, but I derive an enormous amount of pleasure watching the death rattle of the current mess. I’ve been evangelizing and expostulating about this for years now, and voila. It’s not like it was a big secret.

4) The rise of social networking and a new musical landscape – Without wanting to sound too pollyanna about this, I’m incredibly excited about the potential of the Internet as a distribution and social/community platform. Even though things are very confusing right now, I think it’s probably the best time ever to be a musician. Well, perhaps with the exception of the 60s, but that’s only because the drugs were far better. I’ve been talking about this for years now – it’s time to put up or shut up.

So here we go – TPE are going to rise from the ashes, and rock your sweet tootsies off. We will crush. We will destroy. We will have a very good time doing so. And with any luck, we’ll be in a town near you soon.

s.