When The House Burns Down...

...I should rescue these vinyl thingies I have.

Howard said so.



Cover Star: Kaitlin
Headlining Band: Blondie!

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

The Next Ten Bands That Should Reunite Right Now

#11-20

And I'm not fucking kidding.
(all members as of this writing, being alive)

11. Sleater-Kinney
12. The Toiling Midgets (with Mark Eitzel)
13. The Afghan Whigs
14. Roxy Music (with Brian Eno)
15. Genesis (with Peter Gabriel)
16. Guided By Voices
17. At The Drive-In
18. Oingo Boingo
19. PIL (with Keith Levene and Jah Wobble)
20. Uncle Tupelo

Cover Star: CD, who, at one point, helped me with this.
Headlining Band: ATDI

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Baby, Come Over, I Need Entertaining

The conversations, the communiques, the expressions of one's - self.
Betray me.

I know what I want.

Cover Star: Amber, a CHAIRS outtake
Headlining Band: The National

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

You Are a Quiet Artist

That's what she said. And I don't disagree.

Even though she was primping for her boyfriend and I got to document it.

Priceless.

And he showed up with blood on his "scrubs"

"He lived," he said.

And I know it was the truth.

May the lines sag heavy and deep tonight...

Cover Star: Dr. Sarah
Headlining Band: Smiphs

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

It's Happening

Right Now.

And it will continue to happen. It'll happen tomorrow just like they told you, and then the next day, and then again at some undetermined point. And then again.

It's a strange feeling when you know that it's happening, but you do.

It's not something you want but something you've got. Attuned to.

And you feel it.

Cover Star: Carroll Street
Headlining Band: Badfinger

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

The Public Image Belongs To Me

I will not be treated as proper-ty.

Hello! Ha ha ha ha.

1) Keith Levene and Jah Wobble are desperately underrated musicians.

What else?

Oh, 2) the PIL reunion - don't go. Why? I'll tell you:

It was painful to see one of the world's greatest nihilists, I mean really, one of the best - Mr. Lydon basically 'defined' the word - suck Jimmy Kimmel's dick on national TV (youtube it). And Keith and Jah are not there. Just a bunch of nabs. And he said that said nabs were his best band ever. Really? I got two words for you Mr. Lydon: Levene and Wobble. And you know it.

And 3) Reformed nihilists are just worthless assholes. You can quote me on that.

And the performance of "Rise" from "Album" just plainly and simply sucked ass.

"All your pop icons let you down." - Joey Dean
"Ever feel like you've been cheated?" - Johnny Rotten

Instead, listen to some PIL goodness:

THIS song pretty much explains how I feel about, well, everything.

"Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.

You never listen to a word that I've said
You only see me
For the clothes that I wear
Or did the interest go so much deeper
It must have been
The colour of my hair.

The public image.

What you wanted was never made clear
Behind the image was ignorance and fear
You hide behind this public machine
You still follow the same old scheme.

Public image.

Two sides to every story
Somebody had to stop me
I'm not the same as when I began
I will not be treated as property.

Public image.

Two sides to every story
Somebody had to stop me
I'm not the same as when I began
It's not a game of Monopoly.

Public image.

Public image you got what you wanted
The public image belongs to me
It's my entrance
My own creation
My grand finale
My goodbye

Public image.

Public image.

Goodbye."

Cover Star: MY public image - photo by Christopher Bush
Headlining Band: PIL

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Editing photos for your own book is not only difficult, but impossible.
Editing photos for your friend, who happens to be incredibly talented, is a pleasure.

Beer, smokes and arguments. Chris and I made the selection. But the photographer gets to say. Even if we did cut his favorite pairing.

Shown here.

He can always put it back in. But, dude, don't.

"Choose your favorite shoes
And keep your blues on cruise control..."

Cover Star: MCK
Headlining Band: Elbow

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

You Know You're Pretty, Don't Ya?

"Don't mix your drinks / Don't mix with him / It will kill you one day / Good advice, sound advice"

Yeah, you do, don't you...baby?

Cover Star: Don't Mix Your Drinks
Headlining Band: Elbowwwwww, beside

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

I Had a Dream

No, a nightmare.

Last night from when I went to bed at 2:30am until almost 4:40am. A very bad man (who I think looked like Nick Cave) WAS GOING TO KILL ME with a gun - no question.

I had a gun, but that's sort of the moral equivalent of handing me a sausage and telling me to defend myself with that. It was even loaded, just like The Velvet Underground's album. And he was coming. And I was in trouble. Just like The Velvet Underground after the recording of that album.

It was dark and I was in some sprawling old house with someone (???) who at the last minute shot the other, less threatening bad guy (who I think looked like a young Jeff Bridges). That was all cool and all EXCEPT the sound of the bullets gave us away to the very bad man.

I think the dream was in real time, most of mine are, so it had literally gone on for close to two hours. And when I wake up I pause the dream but as soon as I go back to sleep it picks up right from where it left off. Hit play and James dies.

I was so freaked out last night that I got up at 4:30am and haven't slept since.

So who was the man? Was it the hummus I ate right before bed? Was it poverty?

Hell, it was probably me.


Cover Star: Sienna
Headlining Band: Nick Cave, that bastard...

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

No Clothes You Got Seem To Keep Out The Wind And Rain...

"Well, I'd like to hang out,
But I can tell you're not a drinking crowd
I got places to go, people to see,
I gotta a thirst that would make the ocean proud."

AMC. One of my favorite bands of all time. Really. Ask anyone that knows me.

Hey!

I had a conversation with an old friend tonight about music and we touched on AMC. Lost, under appreciated, genius.

And so it goes.

Download. Listen. Appreciate. Love.

"Well, I'd like to hang out,
But I can tell you're not a drinking crowd
I got nowhere to go, no one to see,
I got a thirst that would make the ocean proud."

Dedicated.

Cover Star: FUJIROID
Headlining Band: AMC, my favorite 18 songs. Go for it and get back to me.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Panic

Internal turmoil just won't abate. Money, people and things are all making me crazy. Or perhaps it's just me. Where is that damn bottle of Clonazepam?

Attack! But, in the meantime...

Dear Mr. Marr,
I've been listening to that bootleg from Laguna Hills back from '86 and I just had to say that the guitar in "Panic" is searing, masterful and amazing. Maybe it's the mix, but you cut through the din like a sonic buzzsaw, which I quite fancy.

Now, about this Modest Mouse nonsense...

Love and pretty fed up with your post-Smiths career,
James

Cover Star: Jackie
Headlining Band: The Smiphseses, 08/28/86, Laguna Hills, CA.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Sounds Good In Theory...

...but.

Cover Star: Jackie
Headlining Band: Nick, really, really hard-core.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

I Don't Even Know My Own Blood Type...

...oh yeah, be positive.

Cover Star: Jackie, an outtake from the first shoot.
Headlining Band: The Grifters

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

You've Got Your Pretty Clothes

Cover Star: Natsuko, an outtake from the first "self-portrait" shoot.
Headlining Band: A band often referred to as "The Stones"

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Sad Song, Take One...

Cover Star: Severine
Headlining Band: The National

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Throw From Your Window Your Record Collection

The next to the last file manipulation for the book. The last file manipulation for the book. Some times you go too far, and everyone concerned knows it. Some times you get busted, called out on the carpet, reprimanded.

And sometimes THEY are right. In this case they were.

Ok, ok, ok.

Stumbling around in an altered state of consciousness, putting to bed and tying up loose ends.

Sleep soon. Really, really good sleep. Sleep not recognized anytime soon.

Goodnight.

You should've looked after her better.
You should've looked after her more.
You should've locked the door.

Cover Star: Kyra
Headlining Band: The National

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

"Strong men also cry. Strong men also cry."

A Paul Noth cartoon from The New Yorker. I didn't steal it. A friend cut it out and mailed it to me. Thought it would be funny. It is and it isn't. Mostly isn't.

I consider Paul a kindred spirit. I'd have dinner with him in a heartbeat. And Paul, if you come across this, dinner's on me.

New photos next.

Cover Star: EXACTLY!
Headlining Band: The new Deftones album is amazing. One of those bands that keeps getting better and better and more sublime.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Ten Bands That Should Reunite Right Now

(Encore Post - Originally posted February 9, 2008)

And I'm not fucking kidding.
(all members as of this writing, being alive)

1. Hüsker Dü
2. The Grifters
3. The Smiths
4. Swans
5. Bikini Kill
6. Japan
7. Fugazi
8. The Leaving Trains
9. Galaxy 500
10. Shockabilly

I posted this more than two years ago. No member of any listed band is dead (as of this writing - still!) and none of the 10 have reunited. I did speak with Grant Hart recently about the whole Hüsker Dü thing. He dismissed me. Pretty abruptly. And walked away.

I don't get it. I mean, we're all gonna die SOON.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

New Toy

Olympus µ (mju) ZOOM
Olympus Optical Co., Japan/Tokyo, 1993
35 - 70 mm zoom, 35mm

Obtained for the cost of a few drinks - and it works!
Thanks, Chris!


Cover Star: Backyard Brooklyn
Headlining Band: Spoonishness

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Archives

Cover Star: Sarah 07/12/08
Headlining Band: Live Seeds

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Naked Naked Photos Of Me

It's today's lesson.

C'mon...

Cover Star: Not a dumb boy.
Headlining Band: Nick and Warren, et al...Encore.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Ruling The World

"Days spent getting by creating things things things that will survive even though you most certainly won't won't won't important nights spent in altered states of various places with loud loud loud music other people's shit and smiles important you'd like to respond to a touch but you can't hear hear hear vision failing your worst nightmare except for the one where people break into your home through the fire escape escape escape and then there's the waking nightmares impact delusion improvement don't want to be as bad as you've been want to be better better better so as to avoid just to avoid take stock look in mirrors feel the slipping the disease disease disease panic and run panic and return talk talk talk until you've not only bored yourself but your therapist preacher guru lover and best friend explore the dichotomy between public and private private private all the time dressing and buying libations for strangers that you cannot afford while watching a bartender read a menu to a patron who is elderly and cannot see and think how sweet only to have that warmth chilled by the realization that there you are 30 years from now as if as if as if you try to limit the spew but spew you do do do."

- "XLV" from "Spew" by Kenneth Hayes

If you can get your hands on this, read it. It's brilliant.

What's in the bag? You know. You were there.

Cover Star: Lame "Dog" Hand Shadow
Headlining Band: Nick and Warren

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Lilting...

...to the left. Or right.

Which is always the way I go.

Infer. Discuss. Gossip.

And then get back to me. You always do. One way or the other.

"Children nailed to the walls..."

Cover Star: Lux
Headlining Band: Roky, trying to work it all out...

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

I Found Her On A Night Of Fire And Noise

She'll have to tell me, but i think "this" is "really" her...

Cover Star: Zoya
Headlining Band: Nick, trying to work it all out...

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Downed

I read that happiness = sadness.
And causes regret.
That sucks...

Cover Star: Zoya
Headlining Band: Cheap MF Trick, re-recorded 1997 by Steve Albini

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

"Chains" & "Whipped Cream..."

No, I'm not referring to the popular fetish that oh, so many of my friends indulge in...

I finally found a digital copy of The Wad's "Chains" today on the Internet, actually purchasing it from their label Twin/Tone. This may not mean dick to you, but it was one of those flea market moments, where you finally lay your hands on that elusive thing that you've been looking for forever. And all for $0.99! Except I can't actually lay my hands on it, but you know what I mean.

The Wad were one of those many early Minneapolis bands that Twin/Tone scooped up and put out on compilations hoping that one of them would break big. None of them did. Sure, local enthusiasts knew of the short-lived Suicide Commandos and the Suburbs, but not many folks outside of the Twin Cities areas even had a clue. In fact, the only way you could get a copy of "Chains" by The Wad was if you purchased the double LP, "Big Hits Of Mid-America Volume Three" released in 1979. Which I acquired about six years ago at the WFMU Record Fair. As far as I know, this is the only song that The Wad ever released.


I first became aware of "Chains" when Soul Asylum, another Twin/Tone band that actually went somewhere (along with my beloved The Replacements). On their EP, "Clam Dip & Other Delights" they covered "Chains," "Jukebox Hero" by Foreigner (!) and "Movin' On" made famous by Janis Joplin. Fantastic record, but "Chains" was always the standout track for me. And thus the quest to hear the original began.


Now after hearing both versions many, many times today, although Soul Asylum could not have covered it had The Wad not written it, I still prefer Soul Asylum's version. It's louder, faster and it rules (that's a music aficionado in-joke). But it is and it does. You know those cover versions of songs that people take and make their own - James' version of Robert's "All Along The Watchtower" being the classic example - well, this is certainly one of those. And it's also funny how 30 years later a "punky" song (The Wad's) sounds like Barbara Streisand, not that there's anything wrong with Babs, mind you! Remind me to tell you about hearing The Clash's "Lost In The Supermarket" in an ACTUAL supermarket...

Now, let's talk about the album cover to "Clam Dip..." Look familiar? Of course it does. It's a parody of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass' "Whipped Cream & Other Delights, which sold more than 6 million copies when it was released in April 1965 and was only bumped out of the Billboard #1 spot by a little-known album called "Revolver." Go to any Goodwill - I'll bet you money - and look through the albums. You'll see AT LEAST ONE copy of this record.


Herb's album cover features a very popular model of the era, Dolores Erickson, who was signed with Ford Modeling Agency. She was covered in shaving cream with a dollop of actual whipped cream on her head, and apparently three months pregnant. Soul Asylum's album cover features bassist Karl Mueller, who is actually covered in cream cheese and seafood, doubtfully carrying child. Soul Asylum had just been signed to A&M records, the "A" standing for Alpert, so parody nuts they went regarding one of their new bosses.

Ms. Erickson, currently 73 years old, resides in Kelso, Washington and did a Playboy interview about the album cover in November of 2005 entitled "The Whipped-Cream Girl Speaks." Mr. Mueller, a fantastic bassist that I got to witness live many times before Soul Asylum sold their souls to Sony and recorded that "Runaway Train" piece of shit and faded into radio-friendly obscurity, sadly developed throat cancer and passed away the very same year that Dolores did the Playboy interview. He was 41 years old. At least he made some money...and at his benefit, it was the first time Grant Hart and Bob Mould appeared together since the demise of you-know-who.

Listen:
The Wad - "Chains"
Soul Asylum - "Chains"

Hell, for all I know, ya'll will probably hate both versions and be allergic to Herb Alpert, shaving cream and scallops. If so, the hell with you. I'll post a more gossip-worthy tidbit tomorrow, you vultures...

Cover Stars: Karl Mueller and Dolores Erickson, respectively.

www.jamesmgraham.net
www.jamesmgraham.tumblr.com

Come Take Him By His Feet

Out of date Polaroid 600 courtesy of "XEAXEA" - thanks guys...

"Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!"

Cover Star: Ms. Nirvana
Headlining Band: Nick & the Seeds, Live at The Royal Albert Hall

www.jamesmgraham.net

Switching Over To AM...

"It sounds like 1963
But for now
It sounds like heaven..."

Cover Star: One of the many amazing models from Diana Eng's Spring 2010 Show.
Headlining Band: Son MF Volt

www.jamesmgraham.net