“Ruby”, Silver Apples

Silver Apples is a band from the late Sixties–Simeon Coxe III, aka Simeon, and drummer Danny Taylor–who started in New York, around the same time Velvet Underground was big. To me, they’re are as avant garde and even more experimental… WAY ahead of their time. I actually found this song on Youtube, and it was described as “the best new wave song of the sixties”. It’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek description, but it’s actually fitting! It’s has more of a droning sound, with punching rhythmic drumming, a colorful banjo, and a far-out singer–it’s almost like a bluegrass or country song, with appropriate yearning: “Ruubeeeeee!”.

Simeon created this unique sound with several oscillators, and he was one of the first musicians to perform electronic music! It’s one of my favorite unusual instruments, next to the Theremin and the Kazoo. The drumming is equally important, because it supplies the heartbeat. The songs are psychedelic, but they’re also love songs!

The band reunited in the ’90s when a bootleg of their earlier work was released. They toured for a while, but in 2005, Taylor died of a heart attack. Simeon still carries the name and tours! I am definitely looking out for a performance of Silver Apples! OK: So, I’m doing a very good job at describing this song–JUST LISTEN! It’s my favorite song I’ve posted so far, and it’s pretty addicting. I can totally imagine the hippies being confused at first listen, and then promptly grooving.

mp3: Silver Apples, “Ruby“

Robbin’ the Hood–Homemade Sublime

My sister and her friend gave me a ride to the DMV today (I had to surrender my license!), and on the way, we listened to a kick ass live version of Sublime’s “DJs”. The bass was loud and it was very groovy.  This reminded me of the time I drove my sister’s car and in the CD player was a very scratched up copy of “Robbin’ the Hood”. I like this album because it is stripped down and has a homemade quality to it. The fact that the CD was scratched almost adds to the feeling of the music–honest, unfiltered, rough.

Sublime, to me, is one of those bands that stretch back as far as I can remember–I was born at the end of the ’80s, but it’s not like I was late to the party. As a very young child, older family members were constantly playing Sublime, and so I had always thought they were just always around. I didn’t even realize that they were a relatively new band until much later.

Oh and I heard about the controversy about the surviving members of Sublime finding a new lead singer for their performance at this weekend’s Smoke Out. I was a bit ambivalent about it at first, but then I saw a video with the new guy Rome Ramirez. He does a good job of not steering too far away from the Sublime sound, but it can never compare to Bradley’s live presence. The only thing I found a bit off-putting was that his performance–as far as singing the lyrics–was that it was so automatic, almost like there was no objective beyond trying to imitate. I don’t even know if this is a valid objection, but I just see it as he was getting through the song on auto-pilot—-but then again, I can only imagine the uproar if he didn’t stick 100% to every song lyric, so whatevs! The crowd loves him, so my attitude is: why not?!

 

You can definitely see that this guy is a huge fan, the look on his face throughout the performance is like his dreams were coming true. It’s just like the movie Rockstar! Now I wonder if he will be disillusioned by fame and then another sound-alike-fan will come in and replace him, and then he’ll start his own band with his former band members and then he’ll finally get back together with Jennifer Aniston.

\”Boss DJ\” was a recent discovery of mine–amidst the scratchy and skipped version I found in my sister’s car, it was such a sweet surprise. I found myself putting it on repeat and singing out loud. “Nowadays the songs on the radio all drive me crazy”. I was living the song so perfectly I almost barfed!

S.T.P. is like a whirlwind tour of the sounds that Sublime could create: A Funky Base Line. References to Pets and Homies. Shout out to Kingston sound. A delicately-voiced vamp in the middle, followed by a fast-forward quickly worded section. It contains everything, but it is still a straight-up rock and roll song! Look at all the love we found!