No Longer Pretending

While watching 'The Importance of Being Morrissey', I was of course a bit distracted and delighted that one of the interviewees was Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. 

 

Chrissie is a girl from Ohio
Chrissie's love letter to Ohio:  My City Was Gone

Happy belated birthday!  Born 7th September, 1951.

Started:  5/16/11

The Lady of The Pixies. .. .She's kind of a big Deal.

While watching a great band, Bleech, at a rockin' birthday party last night, I was reminded how much I love female bassists and of my favorite female bassist, fellow Ohioan Kim Deal.  Deal is best known as the bassist for the Pixies, founder of the Breeders and being just plain cool.

Not My Job: Kim Deal
Fascinating Interviewee
It isn't easy being as cool as Kim Deal
Feel It

Fun Fact Friday: Zowie Bowie

If anyone recalls the Glee episode from a few week's back where Sue Sylvester disguises herself as David Bowie, it really isn't that strange of a costume at all when you consider that his first born (with first wife Mary Angela Barnett) chose to study in Ohio.  This was brought to my attention during my first bout of graduate school when one of my cohorts, who grew up and went to college in Wooster, mentioned that he saw David Bowie and Iman walking through the campus of the College of Wooster during his undergrad days. This struck me as quite odd and unbelievable but was corroborated years later by one of my best friends, who also attended the same university and had actually lived down the hall from Duncan Jones until he managed to find 'better' accommodation.  He apparently graduated after three years with a degree in Philosophy and later went to the London Film School and has subsequently directed two films:  Moon (2009) and Source Code (2011).

Walking After You

     I arrive in London and what do I see but  Dave Grohl staring back at me.  Perhaps this is the universe's way of saying that I should let go of my deep disdain for the Foo Fighters or that I should stop using it as a procrastination tactic in writing about the great Mr. Grohl.  After all, as I've said before to a friend, I can forgive the man's transgressions in forming such a band because he was once an integral member of Nirvana. . .plus, he's just a great drummer (he was crowned Godlike Genius by the Shockwaves NME Awards this year) and seems like a very nice guy (even heard a DJ say that the other day).
    All of those great things aside, what's important to this blog is that Grohl was born in Warren, OH on January 14th, 1969.  Although he grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, the northeastern Ohio town considers him a native and granted him a key to the city in 2009.  There's also a roadway in downtown Warren called "Dave Grohl Alley" which was dedicated to him with murals by local artists. 

I am the band

For whatever reason (let's leave that for my future psychoanalyst to uncover), I'm not a huge fan of female musicians but one of the few that I do enjoy and respect is the pretty, tough and confident rocker Liz Phair.  While listening to her music today, I decided to do a little research on her motivations and background and whaddya know, she spent a good deal of her formative years in Ohio.  

Liz Phair was born on April 17, 1967, adopted by John (physician and AIDS researcher) and Nancy (instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago) Phair and spent her early childhood in Ohio. In 1976 the family, which includes an older brother, relocated from Cincinnati to the posh Chicago suburb of Winnetka where Phair grew into a creative adolescent who wrote songs at the family piano but displayed a rebellious streak.  She left Winnetka to attend the quirky liberal Oberlin College in Ohio, where she studied art history and studio art. At Oberlin, she became fascinated with underground indie rock and eventually became friends with guitarist Chris Brokaw, who would later join the alt-rock outfit Come. 


The effect of Oberlin on Phair's music 
(from Contemporary Musicians | 2004 | Brennan, Carol; Gibner, Jason |
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning.) :  Oberlin, like other isolated outposts of middle-class intellectual rebellion, bred bands like other schools breed keg parties; Phair's art studies were supplemented by her informal education in the local music scene. "Oberlin is a really indie rock type of college," Phair told Annette Petruso of Detroit's Metro Times. "It was very much left of center, intellectual and scrawny. Those are the three really good markers of guyville. All of my boyfriends were guyville. They still sort of are." Her first album (Exile in Guyville) was full of songs inspired by this phase of her life. "I was really just trying to impress a bunch of guys," Phair noted of her early musical ambitions. "I am not the band wife. I am the band."  
Liz Phair revisits 'Guyville'In classic Phair fashion, Oberlin grad performs during Fall BreakLiz Phair on Tavis SmileyCinco de Mayo - Liz Phair

Baby, I Love Your Way

Apparently, there's just something about Ohio women when it comes to English rock veterans. While Eric Clapton is raising his young family in a Columbus suburb, Peter Frampton (of Frampton Comes Alive) has been raising his in the affluent Cincinnati suburb Indian Hill.  Frampton grew up in Beckenham, Kent, England and attended Bromley Technical School where his father was an art teacher and David Bowie was a classmate (more about Bowie later since he too has ties to Ohio).  At the age of seven he taught himself to play the banjolele, by the age of ten he was in a band, at the age of 16 he was chosen 'The Face of 1968' by the UK Press, at 26 he was named Rolling Stone's 'Artist of the Year' for his biggest-selling live record in history and at the age of 60 he is still creating new music.

Frampton on living in Cincinnati (excerpted from Bankrate.com interview):

"My wife comes from Cincinnati. When all is said and done, I go off for two weeks and then I'm home for one week. I have a daughter at Kent State, I have a son who lives with his mother in Miami. I have a daughter at a local college. I have a 7-year-old with me. We made a family pact, that we would spend all 12 of her school years in one place. Also, I researched it: Cincinnati consistently has the top five school districts in the nation. I didn't go to boarding school. My wife didn't either -- we both went to public school. Now, when we lived in L.A., we had to put them in private school. You have to there, it's just too bad. I hope Arnold can fix that up!"

Show Me The Way

Peter Frampton official website

Thank You Mr Churchill album

Frampton Biography

Peter Frampton & Tina Elfers

Frampton's Frustration over Obama sign theft

Love Rollercoaster

Awww, little brothers, they love to aggravate their sisters even when they're all grown up. The other week, my younger brother tried to instigate an argument/heated discussion by suggesting that Les Claypool of Primus was the best living bass player, knowing full well that my love for Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers would not allow me to remain quiet. Fortunately the discussion was short-lived and a truce declared since we quickly agreed that it wasn't quite fair to compare the two since they have rather different styles. So how does any of this relate to Ohio (other than I've seen both bands perform in Ohio)? Well, the most meaningful connection that popped in my head was that one of my favorite RHCP songs is actually a cover of a #1 hit by a band from Ohio. 'Love Rollercoaster' was originally a hit in 1976 for the funk and R&B band The Ohio Players. As one would imagine, the members are actually from Ohio and the band formed in Dayton, OH in 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables. The band became The Ohio Players when the core members returned to Dayton in 1964, after a breakup in 1963, and added Gregory Webster and Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner. They became the house band for New York based Compass Records in 1967 after adding two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson.

P.S. If my little brother happens to read or hear of this post, he will undoubtedly demand royalties (from what I don't know) for my mentioning of him. Some relationships never change but guarantee ups, downs and curves ;-)

Flea - Funk Slap Bass Lesson (with River Phoenix)

The Silverlake Conservatory of Music: One of the many reasons why I love Flea

RHCP - Around the World (of course Ohio is mentioned ;-)

Les Claypool - Bass solo

Groove is in the Heart (of it All)

There are few better places to spend a Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio than at Skully's Music Diner's Alternative Ladies Eighties Night. You'll find children of the eighties, like myself, dancing along with wannabe children of the eighties (think born in the 90s or tail-end of 80s) with a couple of drag queens/kings thrown in for fun. While I'm always pleased to hear my favorite British artists like The Clash, Billy Idol, Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, New Order and The Smiths being played by the DJ, there are few songs that make me shake my moneymaker, with or without an input of alcohol, like Deee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart. Dee-Lite's funky vixen Lady Miss Kier, the revamped 60s-style psychedelic charteuse that came to personify New York City's early 90s club culture was, wait for it......electronic drum-roll and cowbell.......born in Youngstown, OH.

Slow Hand/God and the English/Ohio Countryside

I've often been asked what Ohio is like by folks in England and I typically reply that it's a lot like where they live. By most of their responses, I suspect that they oftentimes don't believe me. Perhaps they would believe Slow Hand/God/Eric Clapton, who has a home in Columbus, OH and has shared pretty much the same sentiments as I, although in an interview with Larry King: "I have a house in England. I have a house in France, a house in Columbus, and a house in Antigua. (Columbus) is great. Well, it is very much like England to me. It has the same sort of countryside, rolling hills, you know, small kind of civilized communities of people that all know one another."

From Sex and Drugs to Domestic Bliss

Sunshine of Your Love