Dude, Check This Out: Earthless

This is what I was looking for in 1968. Hard psychedelia lives. Earthless, from San Diego.

Here's a taste from their 2013 release "From the Ages." You don't have to drop anything; just drop everything and let it take you away.

Dude, Check This Out: Son Volt

The music is back.

In their last issue This Is Fly featured Wrinkle Neck Mules in their mixtape. That got me dipping into alternate country again. Lots of good stuff out there. Gives me flashbacks to my youth when the early Eagles, Pure Prairie League, and Poco were part of the soundtrack of my life.

It was good to rediscover Son Volt.

They've explored various instrumentations over the years, and moved up and down along the rock/country and acoustic/electric spectrums. (They played Lollapalooza in 2007.) For my money, the honky tonk sound of their latest album--the 2013 release titled Honky Tonk--is Son Volt at their best. And the 2007 song Highways and Cigarettes stands as their masterpiece.

It takes me back to all those long roads I've been down.

The Day the Music Died

That would be April 30 this year when Grooveshark shut down.

Grooveshark was the online music service I used to embed lots of music on this blog over the past few years.

Turns out Grooveshark had failed to secure rights to the music they streamed, and the result is that they were forced to completely cease and desist.

I didn't realize until recently that all of the embedded music on this blog disappeared the day Grooveshark disappeared.

Sorry about that. Goes to show that, in this internet climate, you need to be careful about which pirates you're pirating music from.

I'm looking for another music streaming site that enables embedding of files. I'll let you know when I find it.

Dude, Check This Out: Sumner McKane

Sumner McKane is a guitarist from Maine. His music is atmospheric, layered, spatial, but with woods and streams, deep flowing rivers, and wide open expanses of coast land at its heart. Great fly tying music.

These songs are from his 2008 album What a Great Place To Be.

McKane is also a film maker, and did the soundtrack for Maine Frontier.

He has a new release coming out later this Spring.

Rest in Peace, Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker died Monday at age 70 in Colorado where he had retired to grow a garden, hike, and fly fish. Rest in peace, Joe.

Dude, Check This Out: King Crimson

Sometimes this 21st Century schizoid man needs to go see the Crimson King.

In the Court of the Crimson King. October, 1969.

Side One

Side Two

Bad Moon Rising

Just dropped over to EarthSky. Glad I did. Big news!

There will be a total eclipse of the full moon tonight, April 14 - 15. Mars, the Red Planet, is the closest and brightest in 6 years, and will be visible near the red moon. Look for the star Spica, too.

This is known as a Blood Moon. Some people, of a particular religious or superstitious bent, believe this moon, and the three other Blood Moons occurring in 2014 and 2015--four in a row--are signs of the Apocalypse. Yes, that Apocalypse.

If you insist on getting all worked up about that, fine. Go for it. But if you have an open mind and are interested in learning more, you might find this link helpful:

A Christian Astronomer Talks About Blood Moons

I've already said on this blog that I'm a believer. And I believe that the End of the World is the Creator's department. I hope to be ready, whenever it is.

Meanwhile, I will be praying. I'll be praying that the skies are clear over north central Washington State tonight.

Dude, Check This Out: The Planets by Gustav Holst

Spring is here, and we all know that in Spring a young man's fancy turns to classical music. But not just any classical music. For me it's The Planets, a grand and glorious work by Gustav Holst.

On a Spring day back in the early 70's I walked downtown in my little college town and picked up this album in the local record store. Yes, this cover has been on every single "worst album cover" list ever since.

Even Gustav Holst himself couldn't believe the level of its tackiness.

But I had heard a taste of the music on the radio and I wasn't going to let a tacky album cover deter me. (OK, I liked the cover. But just for its irreverence, of course.) I went home, slid the record out and put it on the stereo, and was transported.

I listened to it steadily for weeks afterward, always inspired by the orchestral journey into the depths of space and time.

So now this music takes me back to those Spring mornings when I'd get up and put it on first thing, with the sun shining through the new leaves into the open windows of our upstairs apartment, and the smell of Spring filling the room. Ah. I hear this music and I'm young again in an ageless universe.

Here are the movements in order. Sir Adrian Boult's version on that original album was a good one, but so is this excellent performance by the London Philharmonic.

And for those of you who would like to immerse yourself in the full experience, here's the Berlin Philharmonic on Youtube. Enjoy the trip.

Dude, Check This Out: Townes Van Zandt

John Townes Van Zandt was born on this date in 1944. He was a tortured super-addict. You name it, he was addicted to it. His ravaged body gave out January 1, 1997.

In his short time on this earth, though, he wrote some beautiful songs. He never made it big himself as a performing artist, but, starting with the likes of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, and including Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan, his songs were covered by everybody who was anybody.

These songs are from his 1972 album, The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt.

Maybe his best-known song, and most covered--and my favorite--is this one, Pancho and Lefty. I discovered it on one of Emmylou's albums, and I still like her cover version best. But I really like Van Zandt's original.

Having lived with addicts, and having loved and lost addicts, I have sympathy for their pain. But I have no patience anymore for the romanticizing of the "outlaw" or "troubled genius" lifestyle. So I reject the view of Van Zandt and his ilk that downplays the addiction by saying, "But look at what he was able to accomplish."

No. Rather think of the cost to friends and family and children. And think of what he might have accomplished.

That said, these next songs are beautiful and poignant--and deeply sad. The title of the last one, To Live Is to Fly, is engraved on his tombstone.

Happy Birthday, George Harrison

Today is the birthday of George Harrison. He was born in 1943, and died too soon in 2001.

It goes without saying that he was a major part of the soundtrack of my generation. But more than that, he became a courageous advocate for the best that humanity can be. I admired him as a gentle prophet. And I miss his incisive voice.

So Happy Birthday, George, and thanks for the light. It's still shining.

Dude, Check This Out: God Is An Astronaut

More post rock goodness. I love this genre for how the music flows free of the bonds of lyrics. You can just wade into the river of sound and lose yourself--or find yourself--in its flow.

These guys do it well. They're from Glen of the Downs, County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland, and they play music that has been said to "combine epic melodies of post rock, the precision of electronic-fueled Krautrock a la Tangerine Dream, and elements of space rock."

Take a listen and see what you think. Here's a sampler from their work.

 2007

2008

2010

Dude, Check This Out: Blind Faith

Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker shortly after the breakup of Cream. Steve Winwood shortly after the breakup of the Spencer Davis Group. Add Rick Grech from Family. And, for a brief shining moment in 1969, the apex of British Blues Rock.

This was the American version of the album cover. The controversial British album cover was banned here.

To see the banned cover, click HERE.

But it's the music. Make sure you listen to "Had To Cry Today," "Can't Find My Way Home," and "Presence of the Lord."

Dude, Check This Out: A Taste of "Polarities" by Jazz and Fly Fishing's Joona Toivanen

I like these guys. Permanent link in the blog list in the right margin.

At the end of this brilliant improvisation there's a large menu of J & FF's best videos.

Go to http://www.joonatoivanen.com/ for more information and to order.

Dude, Check This Out: Iceland, the Sugarcubes, and Bjork

Iceland is an amazing place with amazing fishing.

Fly Fishing in Iceland from TT FlyFishing on Vimeo.

And Iceland is the birthplace of Bjork, and Bjork is an amazing person and amazing singer.

She started out with the Sugarcubes in the late Eighties and early Nineties. They were a pretty amazing band in their own right, considering they were and remain today the biggest rock band ever to come out of Iceland.

Here's a sample of their music and of Bjork's amazing work with them, first a demo of Lou Reed's Sweet Jane, and then a song from their 1989 album "Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!"

Then here is my favorite of Bjork's songs, beginning with the original and including three of the many remixes that have been done. In my humble opinion, an amazing song by an amazing artist.

Dude, Check This Out: Wooden Shjips

Does this San Francisco band play experimental rock, minimalist rock, drone rock, space rock, or psychedelic rock? The answer is yes.

Just yesterday they released their latest, "Back to Land." Sample below.

Wooden Shjips - Back To Land from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

From their website:

Music Journalist Ben Ratliff reviews Back to Land in the New York Times Playlist this Sunday. You can read the review here!

“Back to Land is also centered and relaxed and open, almost pastoral. It’s music conceived for interior spaces but influenced by open-air ones.” – New York Times

And, for good measure, here's all of their 2011 release, "West."