A Child Christmas In Wales - Non Sucky Non Christmas Music With No Less Than John Cale

You really didn't think I wasn't going to post any more John Cale this year, did you?

The Committee For The Improvement Of Christmas Music continues its evangelical work with a song that has "Christmas" in its title, more as a homage to Dylan Thomas than as a *real* Christmas song.

This song famously begins the Paris 1919 album, which Cale beautifully played in its entirety at Royce Hall's UCLA at the end of September, the high point of 2010 for this Frenchy.  Here's a bootleg of Cale doing the same song in Brescia earlier this year (with newer arrangement by Randy Woolf), so you have an idea of how it was.

If you're in Barcelona this Spring, Cale does it again at the Primavera Sounds Festival , where other luminaries include a reformed Pulp, Nick Cave's Grinderman, Animal Collective, Belle & Sebastian, Half Japanese, and others. There's also Suicide playing, I have seen them twice, and it's EXACTLY what you would expect.
I hope for lots of good jamming and guests spots for all the musicians and the audience there. Alas, I cannot go, but if you live in Europe the festival tickets are really inexpensive, so I guess a combination of  low-cost flights and cheap hostels can make it a great experience.

Meanwhile, it's still non-sucky non-Christmas music season here at the FBC! Headquarters, so ladies, gentlemen and transgendered readers, enjoy!

Waiting For My Man - John Cale at Royce Hall Tonight

Just a few more hours to wait before the John Cale concert at Royce Hall tonight, which isn't even sold out, unlike his European concerts earlier this month. Los Angeles, you're so lame.
Well, FBC! had done her part to, you know, get you excited about the performance (and lost a shitload of art people readers in the wake of all the John Cale posts, bye-bye, shitload of former readers!), so this will be the penultimate John Cale post - next one will be devoted to the concert review and then that will be all for the 2010 John Cale lovefest on FBC!

To make you patient and salivate until tonight, I'm posting a few Cale covers of the Velvet Underground era "Waiting For My Man". As you can see, no one can scream like John Cale. Above, the 1983 and 1984 Rockpalast concerts.

Below, La Edad de Oro, Madrid, 1986.



See you tonight at Royce Hall, and let's give the man a warm welcome!

And to finish, an abstract video, so to speak, of Cale doing Waiting For My Man earlier this year, I think in Australia. As you can hear, he may be 68, but the man still rocks like nobody.

The John Cale Song Of The Week - Paris 1919

On Thursday, John Cale will grace the stage of Royce Hall and play his mythical record Paris 1919 in its entirety, with the UCLA Philarmonia and with his band. I never had the chance to see the band before but, according to musicians Pat Fish (of Jazz Butcher fame) and Tom Watson (The Red Krayola, Mike Watt and the Missingmen) they are absolutely wonderful. I've been told to pay particular attention to his guitarist and his drummer.
So to keep on celebrating the event, today's John Cale Song of the Week will be the song title of the eponymous album, Paris 1919. Yes, you've noticed I hadn't posted anything from it yet, right? We've been busy exploring his back catalog, and I figured you guys could just go to the concert and discover the album then and there. And hopefully go buy lots of Cale's music after you realize what a genius musician he is.
I'm putting up the original album version above, as well as a recent bootleg of the live version in Brescia (fantastic sound, eh?) below. You will notice that Cale's voice sounds much more beautiful now, but he has lost a bit of his Welsh accent when he sings (but not when he speaks, fear not).

So the way it goes during the concert, Cale and band and orchestra do Paris 1919 first, and apparently they play Macbeth at the end (a bit of a shame as Antarctica Starts Here is  such a great song to end the cycle), there's a short intermission during which everybody madly scrambles for the restroom, the bar, then rushes back because at Royce Hall they do everything exactly on time, so don't come in late people, and then during the second part they do a medley of older and newer songs. I wish he'd do Buffalo Ballet, but it seems Cale hasn't played that one in a while.
There are special guests whose name I can't remember, one is a guy from boring indie band Death Cab for Cutie, if I recall correctly, and the other was on the Nico tribute that Cale organized. I hope they'll guest on the second part and won't spoil Paris 1919. Or maybe they'll play covers of Cale, who knows?




So I'll post one more song on the day of the concert, and maybe a last one Sunday next week to wrap up the series. Meanwhile, you can read a recent interview of Cale here.
If you haven't done so yet, buy yourself a ticket, and see you at Royce Hall on Thursday night! 
And, remember, rumor has it that Cale hates when people take pictures of him on stage so avoid at all costs, since the legend says that he either walks out of stage if he notices someone filming/taking pictures, or, if you're rude enough to use your flash, he's said to threaten to slit the offender's throat, and much, much worse. So, don't disturb our Welsh genius  and his musicians while they are at work, and enjoy the concert.

Your Social Life - Waiting For The Man

Hello, beloved readers, Your Social Life is getting out of semi-hibernation/strike/doing something else to first of all remind you that Thursday next week, September 30th, is the day of John Cale's event at Royce Hall/UCLA "When Past And Future Collide" where he will, along with his band and the UCLA  Philharmonic Orchestra, play his masterpiece Paris 1919 in its entirety. If by now you don't know it, I suppose it means you're desensitized to my relentless pounding and promotion of the Welsh genius.

There are still tickets available, and if you decided to go to the Hollywood Bowl see Pavement/Sonic Youth/No Age instead, it just means you have a very bad sense of priorities.
You can see any of these bands regularly, whereas Cale hasn't played in Los Angeles since 2005, even though he lives here. And LA is the only North American stop for "When Past And Future Collide", your next/last chance to see it will be in Melbourne, Australia, next month. So, go honor a living legend while you still can.

Now that this is taken care of, onto the art stuff. Easy this week: You can either go with the great unwashed in Santa Monica to see GLOW, where the crowd control and budget issues have taken care of the pesky problem of showing too much art (fear not, there's less of it); OR go to Glendale to see the Jan Tumlir-curated Jerry/Jury Rigged at the Glendale College Gallery.

Full disclosure: the idea for GLOW come from the French series of art manifestations called Nuit Blanche in Paris, which started when I still lived there, 7 or 8 years ago.
Thanks to its State support of the arts, France has gone through about 2 decades of public art as entertainment, with not that much of an intellectual investment, so as not to shock viewers and cause funding problems in the future. The premises were noble (bring contemporary art to a wide audience) but the results point to what's about to happen here in the US with all our shiny new public art programs and structures: art with less and less challenging or interesting content, sanitized for an undemanding, if large audience.

So, been there, done that, and yes you get a gazillion people going out at night (good for cafés, bars and restaurants business) but that doesn't translate in a better, more educated, smarter, audience. But it sure prepares people for performers such as Lady Gaga: visual fireworks, spectacular sets,  not much valuable content. 

Which is not to say the art at GLOW will be bad (for example, there's the excellent Celeste Boursier-Mougenot or LA own's Steve Roden), just that it doesn't feel like a satisfying venue for me. I don't really relish the crowd experience, that's all.

Meanwhile, in Glendale... on Saturday evening, you're guarantied a peaceful and smart art experience with such luminaries as Chris Burden, Jorge Pardo, Amanda Ross-Ho, Skip Arnold and the excellent Jennifer Moon, who will be showing for the first time in 10 years her masterpiece, the Facility/the Motherfucker (the Motherfucker is its unofficial name, you need to understand). Don't miss it because you may have to wait another decade to see it again after this.


Before all this exhausting art experiences, should you feel inclined to actually mingle with regular folks, you can attend the Watts House Project volunteer gardening weekend, for which I couldn't find any link on their website, dammit (you can find all the info if you search Facebook, but because of today's FB issues I can't link to the event, sorry).
It's on Saturday at 10 AM, and then on Sunday at 4 PM, 1726-1750 East 107 Street, Los Angeles CA 90002, at the same time as the Watts Jazz And Drums Festival Weekend. The Sunday gardening session will be followed by a BBQ, and if you want to join/help during either (or both) day you need to RSVP to trinidadwhp AT gmail DOT com.
So, not only you will have a nice communal experience like at, say, GLOW,  but you will have had the satisfaction to help a community that needs it,  and you will get to see Simon Rodia's Watts towers.

Have a nice, art-filled weekend folks, and see you next week at Royce Hall!

The John Cale Song Of The Week - The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy

11 more days to wait, and we'll all be able to see John Cale redoing Paris 1919 at Royce Hall!

Tickets are still available, hurry, hurry, as Italian friends who saw the gig in Brescia  (and are not, in fact,  particularly fans of Cale) said it was "intense and magical".

In the meantime, enjoy this week's installment in our ongoing series,  The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy.

The John Cale Song Of The Week - Thoughtless Kind

Hello happy readers,

Hope you're having a swell time in Los Angeles,  post-openings. Yours truly only went to Ruben Ochoa (very good, as always) and Lari Pittman (ditto, but overwhelming, love the very early works on paper) and that will be it for this week, as I have too much work to do to go out tomorrow. In passing, I think I screwed up re: Steve Roden opening date at the Pasadena Armory Center For The Arts (that was tonight, ha) and I totally forgot the openings at 6150. Oh well.

Meanwhile, lest we should forget (ha, ha! like we would, right) that John Cale will be playing Royce Hall in exactly 19 days, here's today's installment of The John Cale Song Of The Week, Thoughtless Kind, from Music For A New Society, my all time favorite Cale record, and yes, certainly the bleakest and most depressing of all. If you thought Joy Division was somber, try John Cale. Music For A New Society was released on the excellent ZE music label, and also contains my favorite version of Close Watch.
Thoughtless Kind is said to be reflecting Cale's feelings toward his fellow Velvet Underground band members who kicked him out, at Lou Reed's behest, the latter wanting to go, ahem, more commercial, or is it less experimental?

In any case, it's a perfect song to reflect on falling outs with friends, or "un-friending" people on Facebook for the modern version, and also, why not, on the best behavior to show in the art world when one has fallen foul of the Establishment. Right?

Now, I have to confess that when I started the "John Cale Song Of The Week" series, I hadn't realized that the concert would be something like 15 weeks away, and that I would have to sustain that series for so long. Luckily, Cale's back catalog is so big and there's so much quality in it that I never run out of good songs to put on the blog (I've been toying with the idea of putting some of the crap too, but that will wait for another time).
I've always liked his music (hell, I bought Sabotage/Live when I was 14), but as I was telling friends tonight (hi Mark! hi David!) I was never the sort of fan to own all his records, nor to obsessively collect and track down every snippet of info about him, his band, his career, etc.
So it's been very pleasurable to explore his career and listen a bit more carefully to his songs over the Summer. Now I have even more respect for him, in addition to really loving his music, and I sure hope Los Angeles, his recently adopted hometown, will give him a warm welcome when he plays Paris 1919 at the end of the month, and that we'll emulate Paris and Brescia by having Royce Hall sold out. There are still tickets available, hurry, hurry, so you can tell your future grandkids "I was there!".

The John Cale Song Of The Week - Adelaide

This is the last week during which FBC! will be entirely devoted to John Cale, as we'll be resuming our regular "Your Social Life" column mid-week, what with the trabzillion openings scheduled for pretty much every weekend in September.

The John Cale Song Of The Week series will continue until September 30th, when God Cale will give his concert at Royce Hall, and after that, hopefully you will be more familiar with his back catalog and his newer songs and will from now on devotedly buy his music and try to follow his career.
Speaking of Royce Hall, there are still tickets available, but only the expensive ones, which means you will get the best seats!

I just got some echoes from his Paris 1919 concert tonight in Paris at the legendary Salle Pleyel  - it's a concert hall devoted to classical music and the acoustics are great - and it seems people had the time of their life, with comments ranging from "OMG the world can end outside, I don't fucking care as long as John Cale continues playing" to "I don't want this concert to end, ever" and the assorted "John Cale rules" (and a few others based on French puns I cannot really translate, based on Cale's playing keyboards standing up). So, hopefully, it will be as good, or even better, at Royce Hall at the end of the month. Let's give him a warm welcome and with luck he will give us more than one encore.

While in Paris, Cale was interviewed for a very irritating radio show (irritating because of the woman interviewed before him, and because he is obscured by a translator with a grating voice, so you don't hear what he says).
It's all in French, sorry about that, but he does deliver the information that after this tour is over, he wants to go back to the studio and record a new album.
Now the *slightly alarming* part is that this future album will be "a hip-hop record focusing on Japanese anime characters", if the translator didn't transform whatever it is that Cale said.
If it is indeed the case, I sure hope that Cale will be able to, in Jennifer Moon's words "completely renew and transfigure/transcend the genre". Whatever it will be, we're curious here at the FBC! headquarters.

Meanwhile, the difficult choice for today's installment of the John Cale Song of The Week is Adelaide, from his 1970 first solo album Vintage Violence (which also contains Big White Cloud and Amsterdam, two other songs that didn't get the success they deserve).
It's one of his lesser-known songs, one that should also have been a major hit, it's so catchy. I wanted you to experience the lighter side of John Cale, and also give you something that would irresistibly make you smile, hop, jump,  and dance to enjoy this long weekend and forget  that today, you missed Paris 1919 in Paris.

The John Cale Song Of The Week - 5 Times Heartbreak Hotel

That's right, beloved readership (or whatever's left of you after the onslaught of John Cale posts here), this week's installment of our Summer series isn't a John Cale song at all, but his cover of The King's hit.
Or, more accurately, John Cale's covers as the man has the good grace and genius to significantly alter, modify or experiment each time he performs. So today, instead of posting only one instance of "John Cale doing Hearbreak Hotel", I'm posting 5 of them, that's right, 5 for the price of one. Merci qui? Merci Frenchy!


The first one comes from a 1981 Spanish TV show, and in addition to Cale, in all his sartorial splendor (check the bow tie and the cap!) there's also Andy Summers and the dearly departed Olly Halsall (in pink) on guitar . The girl on keyboard isn't Deerfrance, but Zanna Gregmar.





Now the second one is a video collage of two interpretations, back-to-back, one in 1983 and the other in 1984. Don't miss the 1984 one where Cale, completely demented, tears up the carpet. I think it is the Rockpalast concert in Germany, a somewhat recent DVD of which had been released for the enjoyment of the masses (the one Santa Claus would be well inspired to bring me for Christmas).




The third version features Richard Thompson, that's the main reason I put it here, but also for Ivan Gaskell who, in addition to being a very fine art historian and curator, is also a Cale and Thompson fan and occasional reader of this blog.
There's also Shawn Colvin on this version.




The fourth interpretation is in fact the first one, chronologically, where Cale made it the ghoulish, slasher-movie version that beget all the subsequent ones, from the album Slow Dazzle.



Now the fifth (and last, at least for this post) version is part of the series of solo concerts he gave all over Europe in the 1990s, and compiled on the CD and later on the DVD (that Santa could also bring me, please Santa, I've been good) "Fragments of a rainy season". It's Cale at his most intimate, and also during his "officer-priest of the Empire" phase, sartorially speaking.  Not to mention that Cale, now in his sober phase, is much more restrained theatrically speaking, but not so much musically. The piano improvisation is really interesting in that regard.

Now, will Cale play Heartbreak Hotel at his next concert at Royce Hall on September 30? The only way for you to know, dear beloved readers, is to buy your ticket and go!

John Cale Song Of The Week - Gravel Drive

Hello, hello,

sorry for being a bit late in posting this week's installment in our Summer series, The John Cale Song Of The Week. Been a bit partying this weekend, with predictable results. Now you know.

Now the thing with John Cale is, the man has produced something like 40 albums, so it's sometimes difficult to make a choice, week in, week out. I was discussing with somebody (hi Olivier!) posting several versions of his cover(s) of Heartbreak Hotel, but I'll save this for next week so I can post a more recent song, Gravel Drive, just in case you guys would think Cale was only good in the 1970s. He was awesome in the 1970s, but so was he in the 1980s, the 1990s, the '00s and of course the '10s.

Gravel Drive came out on his record Black Acetate (2005), the last album Cale had issued (if you don't include Circus Live, 2007). Word on the street is he has lots of new songs he'd love to release but no record company to back him up. That's a shame.

In case you would think I'm a complete John Cale nut - and I wouldn't blame you if you did - I'd love to bring to your attention the website Fear Is A Man's Best Friend, maintained by the ultimate Cale fan and nourished by equally batshit-crazy other numerous fans. These people keep a head count of the number of water bottles Cale has on stage.
I'm not there *yet*. I don't even own all of Cale's records, and I'm only talking about the official ones, not the bootlegs.
So, if the postings I've been putting up this Summer in anticipation of Cale's concert at Royce Hall on September 30 have whetted your appetite, please check Fear Is A Man's Best Friend for all the info I'm unable to provide you with, and then some more.

Speaking of which, a friend of mine (hi Mark!) has pointed out this blog post Doug Harvey of the LA Weekly fame (he's also a curator and an artist, check him out!) has uploaded this week. Methinks he's been reading a bit too much into your truly's series... or maybe not. Thanks anyway!

I'll probably resume the YSL posts in about 3 weeks, and maybe put more art stuff too, but meanwhile I'm busy getting "ready for work, ready for work... I clean my llllaptop everyday, that's why my lllllaptop is my frrrrrriend", uh, no, doesn't sound so good. That's why you guys should buy Cale's music here (so you know, you're ready for the concert) and see you at Royce Hall in about a month.

John Cale Song Of The Week - Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores

That's right, you among the huge Goth sub-category within my immense readership, you had no idea this song was a John Cale original, right? In 1980, the B-Side of Mercenaries, the most kick-ass single that was ever released.
Most likely, you discovered it through Bauhaus (piece of trivia: do you know that David J. too, lives in Los Angeles? And that he did a cameo appearance at the Jazz Butcher concert here last year for Walk With The Devil? Now, you owe me a drink).

So, for your enjoyment, in anticipation of Cale's upcoming concert at Royce Hall (only 47 more days to be waiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttinnnnnng for our man, it's unbearable), here's Rosegarden Funeral of Sores. Pretty amazing, isn't it?
And, to help you with the wait, please discover and buy Cale's music.

If we're lucky, maybe he'll do a Venus In Furs/Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores medley at Royce Hall, like he sometimes does on stage. Man, he's so awesome our Welsh genius.

The John Cale Song Of The Week - I Keep A Close Watch

To continue with our Summer ongoing series, anticipating the Welsh genius's concert at Royce Hall on September 30, today's song is "I Keep A Close Watch", the song that should have given Cale an interplanetary hit. I never understood why he never got famous with this one (or with Big White Cloud). Here's a live version,  but my all time favorite is the shortened titled "Close Watch" on Music For A New Society, which is also my favorite John Cale record.

I'm afraid one day some piss-poor cover by a vapid, inept R&B "singer" will be used for a stupid Hollywood movie and will destroy that song. But if it puts money in Cale's pocket, maybe it wouldn't be so terrible. Before something like this happens, please buy John Cale's music, and go see him at Royce Hall this Fall.You won't regret it.

John Cale Song Of The Week - E Is Missing

In today's installment of the "John Cale Song Of The Week", E Is Missing. I chose this one because it is a somewhat recent (2003) song, in contrast to all the goodies oldies and oldies goodies I have posted so far. As you can see (and hear) Mr Cale is still at the top of his form, no matter what. How cool and sexy is that? Tremendously cool and sexy.
I also chose E Is Missing because it references Ezra Pound, so maybe the not-so-well-read among my readership (just kidding! I know you're super-educated, all 9 of you) will be tempted to check Ezra Pound's writings out. And read about him and decide for yourself if his, ahem, fascist proclivities before and during WWII have any bearings on your appreciation of his writings.

As all John Cale's songs posted here, I can only strongly encourage you to BUY his music. E Is Missing belongs to the 5 Tracks record that you can, how convenient of me to let you know this, buy here. And of course, don't forget to get yourself a ticket for his September 30 concert at Royce Hall.

Enjoy! 

John Cale Song Of The Week - Buffalo Ballet

I was talking recently with a friend (hi, Stephanie!) about how John Cale is the most awesome, terrific, fabulous genius in the entire musical universe, and that's discounting the faraway galaxies we know nothing about. And maybe even there, they wonder why, why he never really met with the planetary success that is his due? Listen to the song above, isn't that freaking beautiful?
After talking to Stephanie, I got curious, thinking I hadn't seen him on stage since the mid-1990s in Paris, and what was he up to these days?

That's where I'm marveling at the power of the interwebs, compared to the times that under-20 youngsters can't have known, when this type of search would have taken digging into the archives of several music magazines and fanzines. Today, in 5 seconds, shazam! I learned that:

1) he was now walking among us, lonesome God in a land of dwarfs, since he apparently lives here in Los Angeles! He left New York to live in the land of surgically-enhanced, vapid Industry types! Which is also the land where Arnold Schoenberg immigrated to during World War II and where the Beach Boys are originated from, so maybe Cale can be happy here, too. That's all the evil we at FBC! are wishing him, to be happy in La La Land.

2) not only that, but he's playing at Royce Hall on September 30! WHOO HOO!!!! Individual tickets available for us, the vulgare pecus who can't afford to become members/buy series, on August 9. You know, everybody in the art world. Seriously, I've told 6 or 7 artists friends since last week and everybody is super excited and wondering how the heck they'll find the money to buy a ticket.*

I only regret it is at Royce Hall, because seats tend to be a bit of a hindrance if you want to move around a bit, and more personally because after being hit in 3 car accidents, seating down in Royce Hall's uncomfortable seats for a while is painful. Quite a bit painful.

Nevertheless, I'm overjoyed to get to see John Cale in LA, that is after I sell my putative first-born in order to afford the ticket. To celebrate (the concert, not the sale of my hypothetical offspring), I propose to upload once a week the John Cale Song Of The Week, to let us patient a bit until September 30.
And, for my Frenchy brethren back home, rejoice! Cale plays at the Salle Pleyel on September 5.

So to kick off the series, let's start with Buffalo Ballet, from the album Fear. If you like what you hear, please go buy the song on iTunes or an old-fashioned CD, so John Cale gets at least 1 or 2 pennies in his pocket. He probably needs them more than, say, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.

* I guess that's a reason why Cale doesn't enjoy an interplanetary fame and success: his natural constituency is also chronically un-moneyed.