Record Stores and Perdedores

Record stores are a funny thing. Major chains like Tower and Virgin are now gone, toppled by iTunes and illegal downloading, while indie stores stay alive by offering vinyl and weird stuff that the major stores never could. In the Pasadena area there are a couple indie record stores, but one of the most interesting is Poo-Bah, near the Guitar Center on Colorado Blvd. Usually I go to Penny Lane, also on Colorado across the street from Pasadena City College, but they are, in their own indie way, predictable. They have a pretty well stocked selection of vinyl, and lots of CDs, yet its that very abundance that leads browsing to quickly become monotonous. PooBah, on the other hand, has their vinyl mostly divided by first letter, so their aren't artist sections, so you have to look through everything to find something you might want. And when they do have what you want, its usually something you've never seen before on vinyl, and you probably won't again, making it more likely you will purchase it then and there. Even in their CD sections, the albums by artist tend to be weird, off-center selections that you aren't gonna find at Best Buy. In the age where you can buy anything at anytime from iTunes, this seems like the only way to shop for physical recordings of music.

The whole vibe of PooBah lends itself to adventuristic perusing of the shelves. I went in there today to purchase a record for my brother's birthday, not knowing what I wanted, just knowing that if I found something, it would probably be awesome. There's some old, kinda bookish guy behind the cash machine, with the rows of records and CDs at a little above hip level, and an overlook mezzanine as well as a side walkway that is like where a department stores would put up stuff for sale that bypassers could see but instead you can walk into it and it has two CD listening stations and music, tattoo and weed magazines. Sprinkled throughout the store are super-indie like pressed in your basement type records, with WordPerfect typed info inserts and stuff. When I was in there I saw this bizarre couple looking for weird old records, like the woman had a used copy of the Paul Stanley solo KISS record in her hand. I found a new copy of Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, which I definitely had never seen before. The first time I went there I found a new vinyl copy of PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love, and yeah I've never seen that anywhere else. One time there was a guy up on the mezzanine make weird noise with pedals. And it was like noon on a weekday! So if you are in the Pasadena area this is definitely a place worth checking out.

LA Bass- A Tribute to Carol Kaye

It was definitely a shock to me that the most recorded bass player of all time was a woman, and that she had played on over 10,000 records, but most of all that I had never heard of her. Being a huge fan of the Beach Boys, and like many of their fans, particularly of Pet Sounds, the fact that she helped craft the record as part of the Wrecking Crew, the legendary group of 60's LA session musicians piqued my curiosity into her story. She cut her chops playing jazz in the 50's, eventually moving into rock n' roll because of its commercial viability. As a session player she played on hits like "You've Lost That Lovin' Felling" (Righteous Brothers), "Light My Fire" (the Doors), and Zappa's Freak Out! album, yet has never gained proper recognition because of the square nature of sessions players compared to their drugged out rock star counterparts. Brian Wilson has had his break down during the SMiLE project linked to his drug use, among other things, showing an example of how destructive such activity was during the 60's, and how session players were a huge part of creating the polished, complete sound that rounded out there classic productions.

The electric bass was a new invention in the early 60's, and Kaye trailblazed the technique of the instrument. Ironically, I feel the bass is perceived and personified as a masculine instrument (or at least an overblown phallic symbol). The fact that a woman defined the instruments place in rock history provides a unique perspective on female empowerment in modern music, as opposed to a PJ Harvey/Kim Gordon riot grrrl sort of empowerment (and long before). As the sole female member of the Wrecking Crew, Kaye was at a place and time where no other women were, on the cutting edge of studio musician technique.

I recently saw Brian Wilson perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and I have to say it wasn't kind of soul-crushing to see one's of my heroes have such an obvious disinterest and lack of focus in what he was doing. At times Wilson would just look at the floor while the hired help around him propped him up (Just musically, but at times it almost appear they would have to physically). Brian Wilson is one of the all time great pop musician, but it was obvious that the ravagings of time hadn't been kind to him, and I'm pretty sure drug use played a part in his decline. Carol Kaye has commented: "It's a sad thing to see that decades later, people's drug use [was] influenced by musicians whose records they idolized, that the real musicians playing on them were totally straight". Thankfully those sessions players were there to flesh out such fantastic visions, and you can't have any groove without the bass. Keepin' it sick!