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Charlie Parker's Sax Finds a Rich New Home

Parkers in happier days.

Charlie Parker's old saxophone got sold on Monday, February 21. This year at the New York Guernsey auction house for incredible 261,750 dollars. The saxophone was kept for fifty years after Parker's death in 1955 by his widow Chan (his fourth wife actually) and their daughter who took care after Chan died in 1999. That was a night when jazz was up for grabs among the rich auctioneers. Original manuscript of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme went for 129,500 dollars, Thelonious Monk's high school essay went out for 70,800 dollars. Charlie Parker's watch, Benny Goodman's clarinet and Dizzy Gilespie's trademark trumpet all wen for peanuts compared to other artifacts (13,000, 25,000 and 31,000 respectively). However, when John Coltrane's saxophone opened for 500,000 it was withdrawn. Auctioneer's went out of money!

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
(1937-2005)

Dr. Hunter Thompson examines Warren Zevon

Horrifying news comes from Colorado, famous American writer Hunter S. Thompson shot himself in his home at age 67. His dead body was found by his son Juan. Thompson's most famous work was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, written in 1972, which was also filmed later on. Martin Lee, a writer who knew Thompson well says he was saddened by Thompson's departure, but isn't surprised explaining that Thompson used to live his life on the edge. He was also a noted journalist. He recorded an album in 1999 entitled Where Were You When The Fun Stopped and wrote al song with Warren Zevon You're A Whole Different Person When You're Scared. He received his "doctorate" from a mail-order church in the sixties. http://www.gonzo.org/ is a page dedicated to Thompson's work.

new album==>
Bassholes

When in late 80s Don Howland and Jeffrey Evans formed Gibson Bros in Columbus Ohio, and published their first albums on legendary Homestead label, nobody could predict what kind of musical revolution these albums would bring some 10-15 years later. The only people who understood the new messed up, radicalized blues sound were other musicians, Jon Spencer and Jack White among them. The story of Gibson Bros ends in early nineties, when Evans moved to Memphis to revive their underground rock scene, forming a new band '68 Comeback. Howland then moved on forming a new band in Columbus called The Bassholes. They released a few albums and singles in the nineties, all of them are not so easy to find these days (although that is up for a change as the new Bassholes label Dead Canary Record plans reissues). And then for about five years no proper long play from Howland. In the meantime, Jon Spencer and Jack White brought the sound of The Gibson Bros to wider audiences achieving great success, even earning some Grammies. On the other hand, Evans in Memphis spurted a whole new garage rock scene that gained a worldwide recognition. It turns out Howland wasn't just sitting and watching all this happen - he was brewing in his head a great new album that it seems like it surpasses everything that anyone did in the blues renewal genre. This year, Howland teamed up again with the drummer Lamont Bim Thomas and released this new long awaited self-titled, breathtaking album. Album kicks off with Blind Willie McTell song Broke Down Engine, which represents a link with Howland's past, as the same song appeared on one of the Gibson Bros singles. The duo rips through the song making their trademark noise. Drumming is furious. But already on the second song, Blackbird, what was hinted with acoustic riffs on Broke Down Engine, becomes apparent: Bassholes are taking genre into new theritories, crossing it not only with some expected references such as Captain Beefheart, but also fellow Ohioan art rockers Pere Ubu. On Hell's Angel Howland reminds me on Iggy Pop and Bridgett sounds like it could be a 13th Floor Elevators song, but it would be painfully wrong to understand this record only as a synthesis of previous genres. Dramatic changes and suspense in songs such as Hell's Angel, Bridgett and John Barleycorn represents purely original interpretation of traditional blues and as far as I know nobody did anything similar in the past. On Caravan Man, this suspense is built on a wild jam between the solo guitar and harp. Only a dead man can listen to this and stay motionless! Bassholes also spice up the record with bold political statements especially in Fascist Times. Hints of it are also in other songs such as St. Matthew. It seems like the band managed to find a perfect balance between the distortion characteristic for the blues renewal and a fuller sound with more fidelity. The sound is definitely cleaner than the Gibson Bros, even more so than '68 Comeback records, but still very much lo-fi and live. This record has all the ingredients of a classic and excuse the author of this review for being so excited, but this album is a top achievement. It goes far beyond the limits of a genre that the members of Bassholes initiated almost twenty years ago. It is perhaps the strongest rock'n'roll album published in the last ten years or more. Bassholes biography is here, and a recent interview is here.


<==rewind
Dirty Looks

Dirty Looks was an American band that published on legendary British punk label Stiff Records. Stiff Records were one of the labels in the seventies that was most responsible for linking punk rock with it roots, with British pub rock (Elvis Costello and Ian Dury published) and they favored bands that had a pop streak - which is not a bad thing at all - it was fun. Dirty Looks were an American band, a power pop trio with catchy tunes. It was a type of music that could hardly find home in the USA at the time, so Stiff and Dirty Looks was a perfect match. They were a New York band, brewing their style in CBGB and in a way they were a more rudimentary version of Talking Heads. Refusing to go disco like Blondie, who was similar to them initially, they moved to England making one of the most catchiest singles in 1980, Let Go. Dirty Looks along with Any Trouble were supposed to the main acts on Stiff for the new decade. It didn't work commercially, but both bands left amazing albums that year. Dirty Looks self-titled debut bursts with energetic live sounding power pop, rumbling, explosive drum lines, rolling bass and angular guitar - all three democratically balanced so that none of the instruments is dominating over another. Background vocals inspire shouting along. Quasi-reggae compositions seemed to be mandatory at the time and sometimes seem overbearing, but Disappearing on this album fits perfectly with one of the strongest lyrics on the album. Songwriter Patrick Barns (also on guitar and vocals) did a brilliant job and it's amazing that after the band broke apart he never resurfaced with solo works. Instead, the band released another good lp in 1981 and then Barns went into computer science. Bassist Marco Sin toured with The Waterboys and Lone Cowboys, passing away in 1995. Drummer Peter Parker worked as a session musician and today plays in local cover band The Distractions. There is a website dedicated to Dirty Looks. Stiff records reissued a nice compilation of the band that includes all of the songs from the debut along with some unreleased and single only tracks, but the album in its original sequence remains unreleased on CD. The second and final album Turn It Up album is up for reissue very soon.