What I Want NOW

Ya know what’d make this long goddamn recovery period feel less arduous? Music. That’s right—some motherfucking music. Oh to sit in bed doing my exercises to the hellaciously awesome tunes of Talking Heads as performed in the Stop Making Sense concert film.  I could live within every single damn tune—forever.

This brings to mind bands who have nonstandard instrumentation. i.e., beyond the two guitars, bass and drums lineup.

There’s The Ex, an always evolving experimental punk/post-punk/no wave band out of the Netherlands. On one tour the wild, avant-ågarde cellist Tom Cora sat in

An aside: Cora also played with the mind-blowing John Zorn. Jesus Improvisational Christ, that’d be fabola to do my rehab to!

Morphine—two-string bass slide guitar (strings usually tuned to a 5th or octave interval) tremendous sax (baritone, tenor and double) and drums.

The Iron Horse—a Scottish band, billed mostly as folk but when I saw them at the Orkney Folk Festival in the ‘90s they absolutely  killed it as a rock group with extras. There were bagpipes (small and traditional), fiddle, keyboards, accordion as well as the usual guitar, bass and drums. We were all pogoing away in the nosebleed section of the theater.

Concussion Ensemble—three drummers plus one percussionist playing found objects hanging from a clothing rack. The amazing Rich Gilbert was on lead guitar, there was another guitarist and a bass player. Daddy always said, ‘the best music is the kind you can feel in your sternum.’ Concussion Ensemble was the best.

This for some odd reason puts Dylan going electric at Newport in mind. There was such a fuss about this. Why? Music, like us humans, is meant to grow, to evolve and expand.

Another thing in Newport—there are tours of the mansions.

The mansions of Newport -- originally called "cottages" -- were built as summer homes in the 1850s to 1900 by wealthy tycoons of New York and Philadelphia. Now, these massive houses, including the spectacular Rosecliff, Marble House, the Breakers, the Elms, Rough Point, and more, are open to the public, offering fascinating and informative tours. (source)

Why would anyone tour rich people ‘cottages’ AKA ridiculous mansions. These obscene displays of wealth are an insult to us regular, normal working folk. And yet they’re a popular stop. It’s unclear to me where the admission ticket price goes beyond supporting the upkeep of these mansions which are no more than wealth porn.

Oops, I’m off topic (as usual). Emm, happy Tuesday and shit—I’ve gotta start my seemingly endless exercises now.