Adam Marsland says Hello Cleveland, Goodbye Cruel World of Commercial Music?

It appears that Adam Marsland has finally had it with trying to please the fickle music-buying public by actually recording and releasing thoughtful and appealing music for it's blissful mass consumption. At least that's my perception of an e-mail I received from Adam in late 2009 revealing that on a lark his touring band wrote and recorded his last (ever?) studio CD over one day last autumn while still out on tour. What's more, only 500 copies of  the disc were manufactured and are now being sold directly from his web site.

The resulting Hello Cleveland is a caustic poison-soaked musical postcard filled with a bunch of two-minute Ramones-like blitzkriegs with acidic lyrics to boot (see The Worst Thing That I Ever Did, A Town Called Asshole, Fuck Nihilism) and yet sprinkled with enough tasty embellishment and sing-along vocals to keep it all fresh and downright catchy. There are plenty of tunes that offer a nice contrast to the up-yours sonic blast such as the accordion foot-stomper Jolly Joe, the mellow instrumental whimsy of Flight of the Stinkbug (although I miss the juvenile fart noise that I would have tagged on at the very end fittingly marking the subject's inevitable demise) and the appropriate closer, Batesville Casket Company, a moody acoustic dirge that pretty much sums it all up rather nicely. With Hello Cleveland it's almost seems as if Marsland is daring anyone to listen, as if the opportunity to create an uproar in some heartland high school library in the near future it just too tempting to pass up. Hell, if things really get stirred up it might even land him on the front page of Yahoo for a few hours with some headline like Oklahoma School Board Ponders Blasphemous Disc...

Well, it doesn't take a psychological wunderkind to read between the lines. The man appears frustrated, disappointed, tired. And the result is a joyful outburst of pure angst-propelled rock and roll. It's therapeutic, insightful, and comically rotten.

After re-dedicating himself to a professional musician's life a few years back Marsland started fresh by releasing a very nice anthology (Daylight Kissing Night) and at a bargain price in hopes of introducing himself to a wider audience and as a way to consolidate the past while creating a solid foundation for the future. Next he wrote and recorded a double CD set (Go West) filled with a dizzying array of styles and moods that sounded both mature and contemporary. Released in the summer of 2009 I can only assume that the resulting sales were not equal to the effort invested nor the quality of the resulting product. And yet all the while the Dave Matthews party wagon still rolls on! Imagine that?

Marsland's problem appears to be that he's too honest, too uncompromising and maybe even too talented for that aforementioned blissful mass consumption. It might be said that the worst thing that he ever did, as far gaining popularity, was tell the truth.

Obviously I would suggest that after reading this you (whoever you are) immediately click on the below links and acquire some Adam Marsland music. Pick up Hello Cleveland if still available and maybe take a stab at Daylight Kissing Night. And if you've got it in you, then by all means, Go West.

note: Daylight Kissing Night is also available from Silver Moon Music for $5.95.

please ring bell
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Bearsville Box Set Available from Japan

A Bearsville box set was released in Japan last December featuring SHM remastering. Naturally, the 4-CD set includes plenty of Todd Rundgren material --- solo, Utopia, and a plethora of productions like The American Dream, Great Speckled Bird, Jesse Winchester, Sparks (or Halfnelson as they were known back then), M Frog Labat, Felix Cavaliere and others. No real rarities but it does include the Roger Powell Pipeline '78 single. CD Japan lists it currently at around $105.00 plus air mail shipping of about $15.00. Air mail shipping usually takes 4 to 12 days but sometimes can take longer. Complete track listing is available at the CD Japan link provided below.

**Bearsville SHM 4-CD Box Set**

Thom Brennan - Silver

Thom Brennan Silver


Meditative electronica for the winter season. It's easy to get lost in these smooth aural washes that mingle with the pulsating ebbs and flows turning the cold gray landscape into a beguiling silvery vista.

~~ Thom Brennan music available at CD Baby

Peter Mulvey - Notes From Elsewhere

Hearing a live Pete Mulvey set on XM's The Loft was enough to catch my fancy. The singer-songwriter sounded smart and engaging so I downloaded his new Notes From Elsewhere from Emusic the other day.

Now this is great stuff! Just acoustic guitar and strong voice but soon enough you'll be providing your own percussion with either a rhythmic knee-slap or a tappin' toe. Intelligent, catchy, and the guy plays some wicked guitar. Highly recommended!

Kingsley Gets Whacked!

Ten minutes into The Wackness I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. In fact, a couple of good ol' boys a few rows in front of me must have wondered the same thing because they abruptly got up and fled. Oh, I was well aware that this was to be nimble offbeat fare not meant for everyone but I always want to at least like the main characters regardless of the depths to their neuroses... and as we all know, those neuroses can be either charmingly entertaining or downright repulsive.

Ben Kingsley stars as a bong-toting psychiatrist longing to be both stoned and loved. One of his patients, a dope-peddling high school graduate who just so happens to be falling for Doctor Ben's cute and popular stepdaughter, offeres payment for his sessions with his potent aromatic wares. Now this poor kid, who seems to be drawn into his vocation by both the need to generate a little extra cash and to squelch his lonely boredom, turns out to be the most mature person in the flick. Sure, he is confused and ultimately gets badly used, but at least he feels something real, unlike the other adults in the movie who have resigned themselves to the daily grind of forever trying to catch up financially or, in the doctor's sad case, putting up with a wife who seemingly has run out of the ability to give love or to even care.

Hey - I warmed up to it. Especially when Kingsley implores the young lad in a no-bullshit plenty-of-bong session, "go out and get laid - get your heart broken," and within that short mid-movie pitch of dialogue the key ending scene is set up.

And as for the always pivotal "wading-into-the-dark-and-bleak-surf" scene where a supremely whacked Kingsley finally gives himself up to the whims of the undercurrents, well, it's always interesting to see where the writer and thus the story will go from there, especially once the young and innocent bystander rushes in himself to save the beaten man. Will Kingsley end up swallowed by the sea, will he in fact somehow survive and struggle to shore only to see that our young rescuer has cruelly been swept away (cue Tom Waits' The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today)? Or will both perish - or could both whipped souls somehow survive? It could go any of four ways and thus the mood of the departing audience is thereby determined.

I left in a happy mood, satisfied, understanding that it's always good to feel some thing, even if it is raw hurt, because maybe the depth of your bad feeling provides the catalyst for tomorrow's hope.