August 2006 Archives

After getting a surprising amount of mail on my ELO post, things slowed down to a trickle when I next gave props to the Scottish rock band The Marmalade.

As a matter of fact, I received exactly one email for my last post. And it wasn't even a nice one. The obviously fake email address is too vulgar to include here, as is the message. But it can be summed up like this: "What's with all the rock'n'roll? I thought you were the Rhapsody jazz editor?" Yikes!

Since I enjoy pandering to any audience that will have me (even an audience of one), let me say that yes, I do enjoy writing about jazz as well as the rock and the roll. So, its time to get back to what they pay me for around here:

Fantasy Records has just remastered Chet Baker playing the Michel Legrand tune "Once Upon a Summertime." Brilliant post bop number, cut in the late 1970s with Ron Carter, Harold Danko, and Mel Lewis. Just beautiful. This is one of the few times Chet blew away Miles Davis' reading of a tune. The album cover depicting a young Chet is ironically funny because at the time he actually looked like a sad, burned out junkie. 

Verve has also just reissed the first two sets by The Crusaders. The band had flourished in L.A. as The Jazz Crusaders but this is where they really started crossing over, turning on rockers and psych soul funksters (a mix that is similiar to today's jam rockers.

Check out the groovathon  "That's How I Feel." Caution: you're hair may start frizzin' out just by playing it. I suddenly resemble the entire male cast of Welcome Back Kotter.

Much mellower is The Crusaders' instrumental reading of the Carole King weeper "So Far Away." Nice Fender Rhodes work by Joe Sample here. Sorry to bring up the classic rock again, but that tune was actually a big part of early FM radio.

Andrew Hill is a very different sort of piano player and composer than the hitmaker Joe Sample. A cult figure most of his life, Hill's new album Time Lines is really good. "For Emilio" is one number I keep coming back to.

That's enough jazz for now -- don't want to be the music version of the health nut who tries to give kids orange slices for Halloween.

Ok, wait a minute. Shut up and gulp down one more piece of vitamin rich nutrition, kid. Piano genius Errol Garner playing the torch song "Don't Worry 'Bout Me."

Some days I don't even miss the rock'n'roll.

I've received a few comments and a surprising number of emails about my last post celebrating ELO's "Do Ya."

A reader named Drake points out that Jeff Lynne (along with Roy Wood) first recorded "Do Ya" with his freaking fantastic 1960s band The Move. He also points out that Cheap Trick were big fans of The Move. Drake takes it a step further and wants to know when The Move are going to go live on Rhapsody.

I'm working on it, Mr. Drake!

In the meantime, maybe fellow fans of 1960s British rock will want to discover The Marmalade.

  This Scottish band is responsible for creating some truly incredible tunes. My favorite would be "Reflections of My Life" (which was a major hit in the UK). This is really one of those songs that need to be part of your life.

Another extraordinary Marmalade song is "I See the Rain." This was one of Jimi Hendrix's favorite songs.

Yes, these songs sound like The Beatles. You gotta have talent to sound like The Beatles. The Marmalade even debuted a Beatles song before the Fab Four did. Yeah, its not one of Paul McCartney's all-time best, but at least its not a 30 minute cover of "Revolution 9."

If you wonder what cute kittens have to do with Swingin' 60s rock, rest assured that the one on the left is named Marmalade. As for me, I'm wondering why I'm still hanging around the office on a late Friday afternoon.  Talk to ya next week...

Well, this is it folks... My last week at Rhapsody. I have to admit, it's been one hell of a ride! For my final posting on the "Pop-Ed Blog," I'd like to leave you with my "All Time Top 5" list of albums (in no particular order) that I've come to know and love during my short-lived summer digital music escapade:

1. Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime : Love me some "Modest Mouse-meets-Bloc Party-meets-Franz Ferdinand." Thanks for the writing tips, Zwickelicious.
2. Aesop Rock - Float : The Def Jux lyricist definitely kept me going while I was locked in the dungeon filing CDs for hours on end.  Though, I'm still not sure what the encoding department does...?
3. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time : You know an album is good when you have to listen to every song twice before you change the playlist. Rock on, Maples.
4. The Spill Canvas - Sunsets & Car Crashes: This goes out to all the emo kids back at school. After not knowing who Cartel was, I decided it was time to emerse myself in the music of "my generation."
5. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins : And I thought the only good thing to come out of Stockton was... well... errr... This one's for you, TK.

Thanks to Garrett and Jaan for the constructive criticism; Dedina, Sam and Eric for killer artist recommendations; Nuno and Brad for helping me with tech-y issues; Linda for giving me the carte blanche on PLC; Steph for late nights in the office; Maples for adapting to my lingo (HOLLER!); the folks upstairs for reasons NOT to go to law school; the random supporters of this blog for making me feel significant in the editorial world; and everyone else who I forgot to mention! I feel honored to have worked with such a talented group of peeps. But alas... So long, Real! It's been GRAND!

Thanks to everyone who filled up the blogosphere wondering where I went on my summer vacation.

Portoviarta? St. Tropez? The Jersey Shore?

Yes, yes, and YES.

Most people waste their valuable summer vacations by relaxing, visiting historic sites, and reacquainting themselves with family members. The Rhapsody Editorial staff is not most people. We don't stop thinking about the music ever.

Sure, part of my summer vacation was spent touring tequila factories, making sure that the sun treated Virginie Ledoyen's skin kindly, and avoiding dirty needles in Asbury Park. But, it all wasn't a pointless waste. No matter what I did was, I made sure to ponder the perfect balancing act achieved by ELO's old hit "Do Ya."

In 1977 "Do Ya" peaked at No. 24 in the pop charts but it instantly went into heavy rotation on FM radio.

The song kicks off with a beefy, instantly catchy Cheap Trick style guitar riff and an introductory volley of "glitter" drums. After that, a typical (AKA: freaking awesome) ELO orchestral swell comes up to take the guitar riff even higher.

Then, the sometimes meek Jeff Lynne kicks into the verse and turns himself into a tough, lean, no-nonsense Thin Lizzy style rocker. Like Joe Friday, he's just giving you the facts. The chorus brings back the weird ELO string orchestration and combines the ELO/Cheap Trick Beatles obsessive feel with one important difference.

Right in the middle of everything Jeff Lynne says the word "woman." His pronunciation of the word is priceless. He doesn't over do it with a "WOMAN!!!!" but he definitely sounds like the master of the house....a firm "woman" that pretty much has to really be listened to be believed. No Foreigner style Banshee howl ("Hot Blooded Woman!!! Hot Blooded Woman!!!") for Lynne. He just sets the word up and knocks it down as if he had centuries of firm handed patriarchy and imperialism backing him up.

Then at a minute thirty-three, Lynne inserts his usual bizarro baroque orchestral bridge before ramping the Cheap Trick guitars back up and bringing EVERYTHING (ELO/Cheap Trick/Beatles/Thin Lizzy) together -- including the single best "WOMAN" ever uttered -- until the song ends sounding just like ELO.

Nobody said that working in Rhapsody's editorial offices was easy. Even on vacation we're doing the heavy lifting, looking at songs the way others (loafers, we call them) look for flaws in diamonds or try to find a cure for cancer.

After my vacation, I can safely say that ELO's "Do Ya" has to be about the best structured '70s rock song ever. You may debate that during your own vacation if you wish. But you can't deny that Lynne really knows how to say the word "woman" with more meaning than anyone else on the planet.

What'cha waiting for? Give the song a listen! It completely rocks -- and like all great songs, it keeps offering up new surprises and fresh mysteries to explore.

by Stephanie Benson

Whoa…it's been way too long since I've posted here, and it looks like the last thing I wrote about mentioned heroin, so I better add something before people think I've disappeared into a pile of syringes. Today I feel the need to poke fun at a random rock star for no apparent reason; isn't that what blogging is all about anyways? Making fun of people richer and more famous than us?

If you haven't heard, Dave Navarro has a new band with a few Jane's Addiction members tagging along called the Panic Channel. Their album came out yesterday and it sounds like it would fit perfectly in between those fighting foo and the Sevendusts of '90s modern rock radio. It's got those grungy guitars sprinkled with tacky lyrics (I will always be the outsider / will I always walk the road alone? / Will I always find it hard to make this world of lies my own), that just end up sounding whiny and unnecessary. It all proves even more to me how much Navarro and his posse are total cheese balls that use their black hair dye and –-oooooh-- scary tattoos as disguises (and to attract porn stars). "Said You'd Be" has potential for retired moshers to break out their best elbow-shoving moves, and stuck-in-the-flannel shirt-years fans will likely gravitate towards most of the other tracks on this album, but it's really nothing new and exciting by any means.

Since its release last week, Avatar, the fourth album from Comets on Fire, has been met with nearly universal praise. Consensus abounds on the Bay Area heavymeisters' sonic refinement, their hooks hidden behind sheets of noise, their exotic-yet-familiar gypsy stoner groove metal. One thing everyone seems to overlook, though, is how closely the Comets echo the trebly, eerie experimentation of the early Grateful Dead. Avatar, in fact, sounds like Sabbath's Tommy Iomi rocking with the Dead circa 1968, foreboding guitar stalking furtive melodies and somnambulent vocals. Don't believe me? Check out the last half of Anthem of the Sun, the Dead's most out-there studio effort, and then go straight into Avatar. The way the first song kicks in mid-jam, the stretched-out run times, the layers of mewling guitar piled over hypnotic space-boogie basslines -- it's all strikingly, awesomely Dead-like. Indie rock naysayers may rue the connection, but it further proves the continuing influece the Grateful Dead have on so many modern rock bands (I'm looking at you, Sonic Youth). And it makes me love these Comets all the more.

Las Vegas, NV -- Also commonly referred to as the City of Lights, the Entertainment Capital of the World, Sin City, Glitter Gulch and the City of Lost Wages -- Where marriage licenses cost $35, Wayne Newton performs nightly, prostitution is legal (in neighboring counties), and you can find more slot machines than cigarette smokers (one operating slot machine for every eight registered citizens, to be exact).

Like most non-foreign tourists, I usually find myself in the neon city for a convention, a bacherlorette party or a birthday celebration. In fact, this weekend I'll be staying at the Mandalay Bay for a friend's 23rd birthday party. And it just so happens that Def Leppard and Journey will be playing Friday night as well. I was a little disappointed to hear that the San Francisco natives will be opening for the British veterans, but I guess it makes sense since Def Leppard is "visiting" from the U.K. I can't say I'm too familiar with the NWOBHM band, except for head banger classics like "Pour Some Sugar On Me," "Rock, Rock (Til You Drop)", and "Let's Get Rocked." But the one thing I am stoked about is seeing Rick Allen, the one-armed drummer.

Unless I find myself pawning off my luggage and plane tickets, this weekend won't be my last venture to the "fertile valley" this year. I've already booked my flight/hotel for the Halloween extravaganza VEGOOSE! This year's line-up is I-N-S-A-N-E: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Widespread Panic, the Killers, Mars Volta, the Black Crowes, Fiona Apple, Damian Marley, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Roots, G. Love & the Special Sauce, Jurassic 5, Built To Spill, Guster, Band of Horses and MORE! The festival features some of the BEST artists of the past year. I CAN'T WAIT! I just hope I don't have a Vegas-overload this weekend... You know that hangover that lasts for three weeks?

1.) Comets On Fire's Avatar album is easily the best thing they've ever done. It's much, much more than just hardcore blues punk with a wanky ring-modulating contraption. The first time I heard it I thought, "Finally! Someone's ripping off Bo Hansson!" Who's Bo Hansson? Just the most stony Swedish prog dude ever, that's who. Seriously, check just how stony the guy is. But they're not just ripping him off, they're also doing some stuff that reminds me of Goblin and the Allmans and fusing it with their hardcore blues punk with a wanky ring-modulating contraption.

2. Bo Hansson! Yeah, listening to Comets just made me wanna dig up this amazing instrumental adventure rock album that Hansson released in 1970 as a reading counterpart to JRR Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings. Only when I listen to it, I don't wanna read that book at all. I wanna get bubbling with my Frank Frazetta book.

3.) I've been falling asleep to Vetiver's To Find Me Gone every night. I suffer from an increasingly bad case of Tinnitus, which is a constant ringing in the ears (yes, I wear earplugs every single time I play with my band or go to a show). My health care doesn't cover hearing impairment specialists (which is kinda weird when you consider that my job has required me to wear headphones every day for seven years, but whatever), so when I go to sleep I have to get something going that's soft enough to keep my mind off the ringing. This album is hushed and full of dreamy instrumentation like cellos and vibes and brushes on drums and Andy Cabic's wispy voice is just the thing to lull me to sleep.

4.) Mark Lanegan sure has come a long way from the days when he performed in baggy shorts in a Seattle grunge band with a couple of big fat guys. When you listen to I'll Take Care Of You, you kind of realize that the album's moniker must be somewhat sarcastic. There's no way that dude could take care of you or me! If his lyrics are autobiographical, he's way too messed up to take care of anything, including a baby panda who likes to stuff its stupid panda face with tasty desert cakes.

5.) Matthews Southern Comfort's self titled album has been making me a happy hessian. I wore out Later That Same Year, the album that boasts the difinitive version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock." That album is truly worth wearing out, it's so good...but this one sounds more like his old band Fairport Convention caught up in a twangy timewarp. A lot of my fellow music geek friends always ask me why I champion fey British dudes singing country music over actual Americans. It's hard to explain why, but if you turn your volume up and take a few minutes to watch this amazing performance, I think you'll understand.

During my daily CNN.com surf session, I ran across an eye-catching article, entitled "Study: Sexy music triggers teen sex." According to a recent study by the Rand Corporation, "teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music." The study was conducted over a three-year period and included participants aged 12 to 17.

"Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music 'gives them a specific message about sex,' said lead author Steven Martino... Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said."

Well, when I was 12, boys thought we (girls) had cooties, and we were too busy hanging up posters of "real boys" like Zack Morris from Saved By The Bell. I do remember when "Too Close" by Next was first played on the radio circa 1997. But I think it took me a while to completely understand the physical reference of the lyrics "I feel a little poke coming through."

Martino's explanation seems plausible, especially in reference to the rousing lyrics of today's hit music, like "Milkshake" by Kelis and "Freek-A-Leek" by Petey Pablo. But as I reminisced about teenage love songs, I couldn't help but wonder if the bump 'n' grind music of earlier years induced the same habits discovered by Martino and his research posse. Didn't Rick James sing about "blowing minds (69 times)?" And what about Billy Squier doing "the stroke?" And who wouldn't want to put the "x back in sex" with Kiss?

It seems to me that sexually explicit lyrics aren't a recent development. So does that mean if my parents were listening to Marvin Gaye as teenagers, they were more likely to get it on? If that's the case, I'd have to say I disagree with the Rand study and hail our friend R. Kelly who doesn't see "nothing wrong with a little bump 'n' grind."

There used to be a mural right off of San Francisco's Haight street that featured Clint Eastwood (as Dirty Harry) daring to blow away stinky, filthy hippies. Then, one day this was replaced with a generic hip-hop style mural with smooshed cartoon people in big baseball hats and little wrinkled trousers.

I don't like change. I especially don't like change when it involves defacing murals that depict Dirty Harry threatening to unleash an unholy rash of violence upon the populace.

I like Clint Eastwood. I like his movies (minus the ones where Ruth Gordon gets kissed by an orangutan); I like Carmel, Clint's town; I like Clint's taste in music.

As a kid, I loved Frankie Laine's awesome theme to the Eastwood TV series "Rawhide."

Then, in high school, I started getting into the film music of Ennio Morricone. EM's theme to Clint' s"The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly" cannot be beat. Then, when Fatal Attraction came out, all the adults were saying that it was basically a ripoff of Eastwood's movie Play 'Misty' for Me. The title, of course, refers to the beautiful Errol Garner tune "Misty."

In Misty, Eastwood plays a d.j. at a jazz radio station.

There is generally a lot of jazz in his movies. Lalo Schifrin did the dramatic, half-funky theme to Dirty Harry. Clint's even made an underrated movie about Charlie Parker and has worked with the West Coast jazz saxophonist Lennie Niehaus for many years now.

Now, Clint Eastwood (who plays piano), is composing his own movie themes. He has also produced a son, Kyle, who is a jazz bassist.

O.K. This post is getting kind of crowded. Why not just listen to an entire Clint Eastwood related playlist?

Maybe it'll inspire someone to paint a Dirty Harry mural somewhere. Lord knows, San Francisco could use one on the corner of Haight & Cole right now.

Greetings -- My name is Michele K-tel, resident Rhapsody radio nerd (programming radio stations from Indie Now to Celtic). 

A few weekends ago I attended the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.  Who woulda thunk that it would be hotter in the Midwest than in the middle of the Coachella Valley desert?  As they say, it's not the heat -- it's the humidity.

Highlights of Saturday's 90+ Degree line-up: On the "Biz 3" stage -- AACM jazz legends 8 Bold Souls (who seemed pleasantly amused to be performing for a bunch of sweaty indie kids). Note that I tried to get a photo with all eight members squeezed in, but managed to only grab seven here).

Later that afternoon, The Mountain Goats threatened the audience with an inspirational "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore" sing-a-long but (mercifully) stuck with classics like "Cubs in Five" and (one of my all-time MG favorites) "No Children".  It was way more fun to group sing-a-long to the latter's Pitchfork crowd amended lyrics "I hope you die/I hope WE ALL die" along with John Darnielle as we swayed together in the 90 degree heat and humidity in Union Park.

In-between acts - whilst sitting on the ground trying to not to pass out in the sweltering heat - I began to notice a nice little array of Indie Rock Sox in the crowd.

I wish I had thought more about sock attire before I packed, but then again, it was much TOO HOT for socks. These brave indie rock kids were dedicated to fashion regardless of weather survival hazards.

Other Pitchfork Music Festival highlights included an uplifting set from Chin Up Chin Up, along with hearing the wistful strains from Band of Horses drift through the air while waiting for the Chicago Underground Duo to finish up their sound check and start making some blissful free jazz noise (see sock intermission pictures above).  I had been looking forward to seeing Ghislain Pourier, but hmmm, it was a tough solo challenge for him to re-create his multi-layered Canadian beats with only a guitar and effect boxes.

Unfortunately, due to the risk of heat stroke hospitalization, I wasn't able to make it to the end of the night when The Futureheads hit the stage. Instead, I led the stampede straight here.  Even if you spent the end of July in an air-conditioned room, you can re-live the sounds of Pitchfork with this Rhapsody playlist.  Enjoy - and keep your cool!

1.) BLUE CHEER! I am so stoked I get to see the Blue Cheer reunion tonight. They're one of my favorite bands ever. Hell, I even named my band after a Mose Allison song that they covered (which really pays off when those smug dorks who fancy themselves music historians get their tighty whiteys knotted over our moniker, because let's face it--pissing off music snobs is funny). The Cheer were great at covering the classics, but their own songs were even better. The only bummer is that original guitar player Leigh Stephens isn't with them. But if you've heard the more recent crapola he's been churning out, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Hey, nothing against Leigh. If you can find his 1969 solo debut album, you can just pretend that the aforementioned album doesn't exist. It looks like this.

2.) Mike Therieau finally released his solo album and it's amazing. I'm kinda biased because I used to play in a band with the guy for seven years, but listen for yourself. There's not anyone making this kind of music any more. Seriously, Therieau plays the kind of Memphis steeped country soul rock not heard since Eddie Hinton, but he also has a Ronnie Lane thing going on. Not to mention he's got Paula Frazer from Tarnation singing harmonies on a couple songs as well as Greg Moore from the illustrious Moore Brothers singing backup. And I hate the Counting Crows, but I like their guitar/mandolin player Dave Immergluck, and he unleashes some six string fury on here too. Sorry, Crows fans...I've just always thought that Adam Duritz is a microphone clown.

3.) Jesse DeNatale's first album was championed by Tom Waits, but I like his second one better. He's got this raspy, weathered voice that sounds like he's really lived. And his lyrics just ring so true with people who haven't always had it so easy.

4.) I will be overloading on Love vinyl this weekend because Arthur Lee passed away yesterday. If you've never listened to Forever Changes, you need to sell all your They Might Be Giants CDs and get with it. Rock In Peace, Arthur. You taught me that if my upstairs neighbors are being too loud, I should just shoot 'em....with Love!

5.) Only four more days until the new Slayer album comes out! Dave Lombardo is back on drums for the first time in 16 years! The album is called Christ Illusion and if you can't wait four more days, you can preview the whole thing right here.

While your faithful Rhapsodizers mostly remain glued to their monitors and slaving over their keyboards to produce all the wonderful content you know and love, they occassionally find time to discourse about stuff like, say, music. Actually, that's usually done via monitors and keyboards as well, as with this email flurry that transpired yesterday afternoon. It began with a valid question and quickly unraveled into... well, I'll just lay it out there and let you decide.

From: Michele Flannery
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 1:59 PM
To: music@real.com
Subject: EMO advice

hey editorial folks,

Remember when Emo was --

and not this?

As a result, we are mulling on making an update to the Rhapsody style tree -- moving EMO from under the "Indie Rock" realm over to "Punk" land to be associated with related "Punk-Pop" and "Skate Punk" sub-genres. The question is - do we completely move it over or duplicate it so that it lives in both genres.  I think that EMO has taken on a whole new meaning in the last 2/3 years and is now of the commercially successful WARPED tour Modern Rock variety.  Bye bye indie.  Please screamo back if you disagree! == Michele K-tel

From: Jonathan Zwickel
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:03 PM
To: 'Michele Flannery'; music@real.com
Subject: RE: EMO advice

i think emo-punk better defines the type of skinny-tie angular-haircut typa emo youre talking about. most of those bands – afi, my chemical romance, the rest of warped tour – would cop to that category, im betting. so maybe were better off leaving as is and adding an emo-punk genre.  and besides, isnt dashboard confesh considered the crowning glory of emo? they dont wear makeup at all, unless you count carrabas impeccably oiled ‘do.

From:
Subject: RE: EMO advice
Eric Shea

To: Jonathan Zwickel; Michele Flannery; music@real.com
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:05 PM

Can we just make like real music journos and coin our own term for the new breed? Maybe we could let emo be emo and then call all that collegiate Warped Tour shit Extremo? Then we could get Greil Marcus to write a genre description like, “Extremo is amusing but ultimately tedious.…”  and so forth.

From: Jonathan Zwickel
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:14 PM
To: 'Eric Shea'; michele Flannery; music@real.com
Subject: RE: EMO advice

screamo is different than emo or emo punk.

im with eric. extremo is good, but it sorta sounds like guys w guitars on motorcross bikes. im into betweeno or halloweeno (these guys wear a lot of makeup).

other options: seemo (cause it just seems like emo)
cold creamo (see above halloween definition)
regimo (if its politically focused)
low self-esteemo (obvious)

thoughts?

From: Eric Shea
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:18 PM
To: Jonathan Zwickel; Michele Flannery; music@real.com
Subject: RE: EMO advice

Cookies-and-creamo (songs for today’s morbidly obese children)
Tag-teamo (indie rock for wrestling fans)
Captain Nemo (songs about the guilt of squid slaying)
Teen Steemo (indie songs for young people to exercise to)
Free Streamo (for bands who are comfortable with the fact that nobody is ever gonna download their music)
Schemo (songs for aspiring terrorists)

From: Jonathan  Zwickel
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 2:31 PM
To: 'Eric Shea'; Michele Flannery; music@real.com
Subject: RE: EMO advice

whats crazy is the way the captain nemo genre has really taken off in the last 12 minutes. www.totallyemooveryou.blogspot.com just posted the latest track from the band 20 thousand leagues entitled “tentacle’s gone,” from the album she loves me nautilus. its a stunner.

Sam was at the gym and missed out on all this witty banter. When he read the thread he told me the whole thing just seemed kinda lame-o.

So now you see what we do all day.

Since this is a music blog and I'm contractually required to post a track here, I'll leave you with this one from Under the Influence of Giants. What with all the flagrant retroism going on these days, it's a shock nobody's tackled the platform-shod dance party that is disco. Until now.

Well, the Coup de Stereo mailbags have been overflowing again. As usual, the people who have something good to say are saying it somewhere else. All I ever get is hate mail.

"Why do you despise cats so much?" writes P. Penneker. "You are supposed to be writing about music."

On the other hand, mfanta@yahoo writes, "I only come to this site to read about your dog Max. Instead its music, music, music. Who cares about music?"

First off, Mrs. Penneker, I love cats. I don't even believe that all cats resemble dead German dictators. I believe that cats can be warm, cuddle creatures. I even watched a recent feature on 60 Minutes about cats swinging in the suburbs (pictured, right).

However, I do feel sorry for cats with substance abuse problems and those poor, unfortunate gatos who are born in poorer regions of the globe and are forced to chase mice who from suffer genetic mutations resulting in increased speed, intelligence and cheerfulness.

I also follow neighborhood cats around and try to get them to listen to the Andrew Bird song "Skin is, My." I'm not quite sure why I do this, but it does show that I have affection for the animals and that I know a great pop song when I hear it.

To answer Mr. Fanta's missive: Max is doing fine. He is currently spending his summer days with a visiting German lass who takes him on long walks, allows him watch Rockford reruns and hand feeds him all day long.

Max is going through a heavy '70s phase right now. He is currently listening to a number of jazz releases from CTI Records -- that decade's premier crossover label. He may've once been a street dog, but Max has definitely turned into a penthouse pup.

Sorry, Mr. Fanta. Even my dog won't let you escape the music.

In a 2005 edition, Rolling Stone argues that "That's All Right (Mama)," Elvis Presley's first single for Sun Records in 1954, was the first rock and roll record.

However, Reebee Garofalo contends in his book Rockin' Out' that it was in fact Bill Haley and the Comets' 1954 famous recording of "Rock Around the Clock" that was the first rock and roll single. Moreover, Haley's track was the first rock and roll song to top Billboard Magazine's main sales and airplay charts in 1955 and was a huge international success as well.

But this story isn't finished yet. Charlie, our official tour guide at Sun Studios, proudly noted that Jackie Brenston's 1951 recording of "Rocket 88" was actually history's first taste of rock and roll.  I listened to this recording at Sun and had to agree that it certainly sounded like rock and roll to me and indeed did precede both Elvis and Bill Haley by three years, a notable achievement in RandR history, it seems to me.  After visiting Sam Phillip's legendary Sun Studio establishment this weekend in Memphis, I felt quite a bit more moved by this Tennessee music landmark than by Rolling Stone or by Music Management 111, my music industry analysis class in which we used Garofalo's novel as a textbook.

Maybe it was the Elvis paraphernalia on loan from Graceland that influenced me -- the shrine included Presley's social security card, his high school diploma, and his varied teeny bopper merchandise, some of which reminded me of my old NKOTB gear.

Or maybe it was the tribute to the Prisonaires. This doo wop, bluesy quintet were inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville.  In 1953, Phillips brought the shackled group to his studios and recorded their one-hit wonder "Just Walkin' in the Rain," as a publicity stunt to draw more revenue for his failing studio. History reveals that the record was indeed a hit and even became a favorite of the state's governor, Frank Clement.  In fact, he liked it so much that he pardoned the prisoners.  Hence, the term "clemency."

"It's like who shot JFK," Tony Cajiao, editor of the U.K's longest-running rock and roll magazine, Now Dig This!, once said. "[The first rock'n'roll record] is one of those debates that's going to go on forever. It's one of those questions that there's no answer for. It would be nice for me to tell you that the first rock'n'roll record ever made was by Fred Bloggs, but it's an impossible thing to do. You're never going to get a definitive answer."

Well, whether you shake to Elvis Presley, rattle to Bill Haley, or roll to Jackie Brenston, one topic that certainly isn't debatable is Sun Studio's major influence on music history. If you're ever in Memphis, Sun Studios is one place you shouldn't miss.  Prepare to be impressed.  I was.