Ray Davies is the Best Songwriter: Exhibit I

We didn't forget about our semi-regular Sunday series systematically laying out the case why Ray Davies is the best songwriter ever in rock & roll, we just got busy. I put out a new tune, click here to listen, and with summer and gigs and the coffee shop and... anyway, let's get on with it.  Enjoy! - Colin G.

Click here for Ray Davies is the best songwriter exhibit H

The Kinks -  "Working at the Factory" written by Ray Davies

Sure, Think Visual isn't a masterpiece relative to other Kinks efforts, but as always, it has a number of gems scattered throughout. Considering this is TWENTY FIRST album released by The Kinks makes the it that much more impressive. Or put another way, has your favorite band released twenty- one records? That's what I thought. Get bent. Ray Davies is the best. 

The Kinks Working at the Factory

"Working At The Factory"
 

All my life, I've been a workin' man
When I was at school they said that's all you'll ever understand
No profession, I didn't figure in their plans
So they sent me down the factory to be a workin' man

All I lived for, all I lived for
All I lived for was to get out of the factory
Now I'm here seemingly free, but working at the factory

Then music came along and gave new life to me
And gave me hope back in 1963
The music came and set me free
From working at the factory

All I lived for, all I lived for
Was to get out of the factory
All I lived for, all I lived for
Was to get out of the factory

Never wanted to be like everybody else
But now there are so many like me sitting on the shelf
They sold us a dream but in reality
It was just another factory
I made the music, thought that it was mine
It made me free, but that was in another time
But then the corporations and the big combines
Turned musicians into factory workers on assembly lines

All we live for, all we live for
All we live for is to get out of the factory
We made the music to set ourselves free
From working at the factory

All my life I've put in a working day
Now it's sign the contract, get production on the way

Take the money, make the music pay
Working at the factory
All I lived for was to get out of the factory

Never wanted to be like everybody else
But now there are so many like me sitting on the shelf
They sold us a dream that in reality
Was just another factory

Working at the factory

An Homage to "Repo Man" 30 Years On - by Nick Taggert

An Homage to “Repo Man” 30 Years On

You know the way everybody's into weirdness right now? Books in all the supermarkets about Bermuda triangles, UFOs, how the Mayans invented television? Well, they’re into celebrating anniversaries, too. Aging soldiers were trotted out to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day and Baby Boomers got all gooey about marking 50 years since the Beatles first came to America. Anniversaries help us reflect on where we’ve been and how those events have shaped us. That’s why I find it somewhat unfathomable that another great cultural anniversary went uncommented on by the media: this past March marked 30 years since the release of the movie, “Repo Man”.

I was 21 when it was released and it came at a formative time when I was trying to figure things out; you know, finding an identity and a path worth pursuing, blah, blah, blah. Not that the movie helped me find a vocation. Repossessing cars from dildos who don’t pay their bills didn’t sound like an attractive career. And despite a burgeoning music scene in early 80s Columbus, I was not a white suburban punk and would never have dreamed of getting sushi and not paying for it. But the movie opened my eyes in other ways by introducing me to genres of music and humor that might not have otherwise reached the Westside of Columbus. 

Everyone has a movie they can quote ad nauseam: “Caddyshack,” “Slap Shot,” “Fletch.” For me, it’s “Repo Man.”  Like Pavlov’s dog, I can’t see a pine tree air freshener dangling from a rearview mirror without commenting, “You find one in every car. You’ll see.” Or reciting the soliloquy regarding John Wayne’s sexual preferences whenever the Duke’s name is mentioned. It’s some form of “Repo” Tourette’s, I’m sure.

“Repo Man” contains the perfect blend of wackiness and youthful ennui, and it sucked me right in. There are hardcore punks, car chases through the concrete riverbeds of Los Angeles, a ’64 Chevy Malibu with dead aliens in the trunk, and a deranged inventor of the neutron bomb attempting to keep the two hemispheres of his brain from exploding. Not to mention gun play and people getting vaporized. It’s intense! But as we learn from the film, the life of a repo man is always intense. 

The characters are memorable: Emilio Estevez in his finest role as punk turned repo man, Otto Maddox; curmudgeonly Harry Dean Stanton as the fatherly Bud; Tracey Walter as the wise car-yard philosopher, Miller; and all the other beer-monikered cast members and offbeat extras.

The movie isn’t for everyone. Commies won’t like it, nor Christians, nor ordinary fucking people. It might be a gender thing, too. The film does seem geared toward guys. Punk is a testosterone-driven art form and all the repo men are, well, men. My wife is not a big fan. But then she doesn’t like shrimp either. Or plate. Or plate o’ shrimp. She loves Monty Python, so it’s not as if she doesn’t appreciate silly or absurdist humor. Maybe she just needs to watch it another ten to twenty times. Like me.

Multiple viewings reveal layer upon layer of pop culture references that eventually enmesh the movie in a lattice of satirical coincidence, if you will. Scientology gets a poke in the eye when government agents are found reading Diuretics: The Science of Matter over Mind, and a term paper is waiting to be written comparing Bud’s “Repo Code” (“I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm.”) to Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. (“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”)

The movie is obviously peculiar, but it’s effectively peculiar. It not only entertains, it blows the mind, making our brains receptive to new and original ideas. The cerebral cortex can always use a good scrubbing. 

But what is the movie about? Punk rock? Aliens? Time travel? Nuclear war? How the fuck should I know? The only certainties are that it is funny and it has a killer soundtrack. From Iggy Pop’s title track to the teen angst anthem of Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” (“How can you say what my best interest is?/ What are you trying to say, I'm crazy?/When I went to your schools/ I went to your churches/ I went to your institutional learning facilities?!/ So how can you say I'm crazy?”), it’s cool and it rocks and it’s infused with humor. There’s Black Flag’s “TV Party” (“We've got nothing better to do/ Than watch T.V. and have a couple of brews”) and Burning Sensations cover of Jonathan Richman’s “Pablo Picasso” (“Some people try to pick up girls, get called an asshole / This never happened to Pablo Picasso”). And for some hip cache, there’s the Latino punk band, The Plugz, singing a Spanish version of Johnny Rivers’s “Secret Agent Man,” or “Hombre Secreto” as they say in the barrio. In the early 80s, punk rock was ripping the seams off the bloated music that came before it. And for a Midwestern boy raised on Top 40 and Album Oriented Rock, it kicked open doors of scary cubbyholes I might not have otherwise peered inside. 

Thirty years on, does the film hold up? Does one run the risk of seeing it again with mature eyes and concluding, as Otto does when watching a familiar band in a nightclub, “I can’t believe I used to like these guys.” In my humble opinion, “Repo Man” continues to entertain. The Criterion Collection released an enhanced 2-DVD set last year, so someone else must think so, too. (It contains the expected director’s and actors’ commentaries, but what makes it especially coveted is the rare TV-edit of the movie where “melonfarmers” replaces “motherfuckers”!)

No doubt if you pulled a core sample from the film, the plug would show ample evidence of the 1980s. There are people using phone booths (how quaint); Otto’s a cappella version of “TV Party” includes “Dallas” and “The Jeffersons”; and there’s the running gag of generic “Food” and “Beer” packaging, funny as well as nostalgic for those of us who remember those blue and white unbrands. 

I’m fond of saying “Repo Man” contains the meaning of life, but, of course, that’s hyperbole. For the vigilant viewer, however, there are enough meaningful aphorisms to fill a Mitch Albom book. For example, we learn food is more enjoyable if eaten off a plate; there is room to move as a fry cook; the more you drive, the less intelligent you are; and, while getting by however we can, we all gotta duck when the shit hits the fan. 

So, what’s the meaning of it all? There isn’t any! That’s what makes it so much fun. (Kind of like life?) Just sit back and enjoy the ride, as if cruising through the night sky of southern California in a glowing Chevy Malibu that is really…yeah, you got it…a time machine! It’s all part of the cosmic unconsciousness.

Attention Writer Types: Good Stuff from Joe Oestreich, "Writing in the Major Key"

Be it a song or a novel, Joe Oestreich knows a thing or ten about writing. So when he has something to say on the subject, you best be paying attention. Get yerself learned, why don't ya?

Click here to check out his latest essay, "Writing in the Major Key" published on the Bending Genre website.  

Stone Brewery in Columbus? Let's Ask Some Experts by Colin G.

I was talking to some people backstage before our show at Comfest and a couple of folks mentioned excitedly, "Do you know who is here checking out your gig and Comfest? The CEO and all the big guns from Stone Brewery. Rumor has it they might build a brewery here in Columbus." 

Staring out into the sea of Comfest mugs, I pondered for a moment and said, "Damn, I guess we do drink a lot of beer here in C-bus. A little more can't hurt. Better safe the sorry. Did they bring a keg with them?"

"Uh no, dumb-ass,  they are one of the biggest craft breweries in the USA. They didn't fly in with a keg for your band."

"Really? No beer and they still got backstage? This is a big deal, huh?"

"You bet. Now get onstage, we're running late..…"

Obviously, the idea of more beer being produced in my hometown is an exciting proposition, so I decided to ask some local experts what this would mean for Columbus and, additionally, who the hell is Stone Brewing anyway?

Greg May is a former Buffalo Wild Wings franchisee who now finds himself in the beer distribution business. His 17th Star Distributing is a start-up distributor focusing exclusively on craft beer.

Greg, What is it about Stone Brewery that makes them so special? Is there a certain beer they are famous for? Do you have a favorite?     

Big beers with big ABV have been a driving force in the growth and popularity of the craft beer industry, especially India Pale Ales (IPA's). Stone has been making big beers for a long time, before the wave hit, so they had a sizable head start in terms of building a loyal (some would say fanatical) customer base  Arrogant Bastard was first released in 1997. My personal favorite is the Enjoy By series of IPA's. These are IPA's intentionally built "not to last." They are given an "Enjoy By" date which assures that you are consuming the beer when it is at its absolute freshest.

Craft beer is exploding in central Ohio. Is distribution keeping up with demand?  

Distribution is still lagging demand by a comfortable margin. Demand continues to expand into some of the outer regions of the marketplace such as fine-dining establishments and even drugstores. That's right, Walgreen's is now selling growlers in some locations. 

How does having a brewery in Columbus help Stone with their East Coast distribution? Or does it?

According to one list recently published, Stone is the 10th largest craft brewery in the US. That puts them in the company of other large craft breweries like Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues, all of which have recently opened or will soon open East Coast brewing facilities. Trucking beer around the country is a big expense so as these breweries get bigger and bigger, they start to focus on reducing the cost of logistics and freight.

Greg, I want to back up to something you said earlier. You mean to tell me I could get my growlers and prescriptions filled at the same time? That is convenient! So how does all that beer end up in stores anyway? It looks heavy. 

Big breweries like Stone sell the beer to a wholesale distributor who then resells it and delivers it to the retailers. Most of the small craft breweries that have been popping up in the last few years self-distribute. 

Rick Kinsinger - A licensed Professional Engineer who has designed systems for craft breweries in Ohio. 

Rick, you have first hand experience with building successful craft breweries. If Stone were to open their first "East Coast" brewery in Columbus, how big of operation would it be and how many jobs could we be talking about?

Columbus is an ideal location for Stone.  With our proximity to both the Midwest and the East Coast, it’s easy to see why Stone is interested in Columbus.  They’re looking to ultimately produce 500,000 barrels of beer annually at their new facility.  To put that in perspective, last year Ohio produced about 1.1 million barrels of craft beer.  The amount of beer production that they’re talking about should make Stone the third largest craft brewery in the country.  I imagine they’re looking for space in the 150,000 to 200,000 square foot range.  That’s a really big brewery in the craft beer industry and it would be great for Columbus to attract such a high profile manufacturer.  Stone is planning to open a restaurant and bar attached to the brewery.  Including the restaurant, they’re looking at upwards of 400 new jobs. 

If you could offer advice to newcomers constructing a brewery in Columbus, what would it be? 

The City of Columbus is always willing to work with good companies who want to expand or relocate to Columbus.  As building departments go, I have always found ours to be reasonable and they will work to help new businesses.  If I had any advice for Stone, it would be simply: “Learn all you can about Columbus. You’ll like what you see."

Mark Pottschmidt - owner of multiple World of Beer locations in Ohio.

Mark, What makes Stone Brewery so popular?

(via text)

STONE IS ONE OF THE HANDFUL OF BREWERIES THAT HAS BEEN ABLE TO INTRODUCE CRAFT BEER TO BEER LOVERS ON A NATIONAL LEVEL, JUST AS DOGFISH HEAD, BELLS, DESCHUTES AND NEW BELGIUM HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO, AND IN DOING SO THEY HAVE CULTIVATED A GREAT BRAND AND LOYAL FANS.    

Do you have success with them at your WOB locations?

YES, WE HAVE A GREAT RELATIONSHIP WITH STONE WHO WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH OUR PRODUCT MANAGER AT OUR BREWERY DISTRICT LOCATION, KENNY WRIGHT, THAT THEY BROUGHT HIM TO THEIR CALIFORNIA BREWERY AND GAVE HIM THE RED CARPET TREATMENT!

What do you think it would add to growing reputation of Columbus as a "beer capital" of the Midwest if they were to build their first brewery here east of the Mississippi?

STONE OPENING A BREWERY IN COLUMBUS WOULD BE A REAL COUP FOR THE ENTIRE REGION AS IT WOULD NOT ONLY STRENGTHEN OUR GROWING REPUTATION AS A CRAFT BEER MECCA BUT ALSO HIGHLIGHT THE FACT THAT COLUMBUS IS BUSINESS FRIENDLY WITH GREAT DISTRIBUTION INFRASTRUCTURE.

Okay, beer nerds, there you have it. Better buy a back-up growler and an extra ping pong ball because it looks like you may need it. Chug!

Colin Gawel writes for and runs Pencilstorm. He plays in the band Watershed, owns Colin's Coffee and he likes beer, rock n roll and baseball, though the order varies.

Hamell On Trial @ The Hungry Soul Cafe, Friday July 25th, 8 pm / Bonus Content by Ricki C.

So let’s say one day you find yourself thinking, “I wish I could go see the 1978 Clash, only instead of a four-man punk band, they would be rolled into one bald, sweaty guy with a 1937-vintage acoustic guitar.  And instead of being just deadly serious, The Clash would simultaneously be as socially conscious & hilarious as Richard Pryor was at his prime.  I wish I could go see a show like that.”

Well, dear readers, as always Pencilstorm is here to make your wishes come true: This Friday, July 25th, The Hungry Soul Café (downtown at 30 S. Young Street, phone 224-1944) will present Hamell On Trial, a solo acoustic rock & roll act that has been described as “Bill Hicks, Hunter S. Thompson and Joe Strummer all rolled into one” by Philadelphia Weekly and a “one-man Tarantino flick: loud, vicious, luridly hilarious, gleefully & deeply offensive” by New York’s Village Voice.   

Showtime at The Hungry Soul is 8 pm, tickets & reservations are $8 in advance, admission at the door will cost you a laughably minimal $10.  Parking meters around The Hungry Soul need not be fed after 7 pm, so parking is essentially free.  For more info and reservations, visit info@hungrysoulcafe.com.   

Please note: Video is not for the faint of heart. If you are easily offended, you'd best skip it.

Hamell On Trial by Ricki C.

Pencilstorm Conflict of Interest Statement: I served as road manager for Hamell On Trial for 10 years, 2000-2010, before knee surgery for a torn ligament sidelined me and made it infinitely more difficult to traipse around these United States hauling guitars & amps and making nine & ten hour drives between gigs. But make no mistake, boys & girls, for those ten years I worked every night in the presence of greatness, and I would mean every word of this blog whether I had ever traveled & worked with Hamell, or just stared up at him on the stage from the audience, awestruck from the other side of the footlights.

I first encountered the phenomenon that is Hamell On Trial at the South By Southwest Music Convention in Austin, Texas, March 1996, at a huge outdoor Mercury Records showcase – 10,000 people in the street on a gorgeously warm Texas afternoon/evening. Ed was signed to Mercury then, his first record, Big As Life had just been released, and they were using him to keep the crowd occupied between the other performers' sets (God Street Wine, The Refreshments, and Joan Osborne - for those of you scoring at home). While roadies scurried around changing out amps, drums, etc. Ed would play from the very front of the stage, maybe five songs at a time, three sets in all.

From the very first dive-bomber kamikaze guitar strums and the staccato spitting delivery of the best lyrics I had heard in years it was rock & roll love at first sight. The next day I lucked into seeing him at a really, really small coffeehouse in his allotted South By Southwest slot. I was there to see the act following him and had arrived early to snag a good seat. While Ed was setting up I thought to myself, "Cool, this is the guy I saw yesterday at the outdoor show, but how the hell is he going to play this tiny coffeehouse? He'll have to tone the act down so far it won't work."

Only he didn't tone it down. He played a fifty-seat coffeehouse at exactly the same manic intensity and nearly the same volume he played the huge outdoor show. People walked out of the place wincing and holding their ears during the first song. I, on quite the other hand, was in six-string sonic heaven. This was everything I had been looking for since I quit playing in bands and started doing solo acoustic shows: extreme volume and attitude, great lyrics, a sense of humor. This was fiercely intelligent rock & roll played on an acoustic guitar with no hint of lingering folkie kum-ba-yah-ism.

I saw him again in March 1997 at South By Southwest and he had a whole set of new songs potentially even better than the ones I saw him play just a year earlier (including "The Vines," the song that ended my 20-year career of warehouse work and sent me into music full-time.) In August of '97 he played Columbus and I cadged my way onto the bill as the opening act. I got to the club early, watched his soundcheck, screwed up my courage and walked up to him as he was packing up his guitar. I held up my CD covers to Big As Life and The Chord Is Mightier Than The Sword and said, "Hi, I'm your opening act and I just wanted to get the gushing fan stuff out of the way. Could you autograph these for me?"

I was fully poised, balanced back on my heels, ready to take off if he growled, "Motherfucker, do you think I don't have anything better to do than sign your little CD's?" Instead he smiled and said, "Ah, you got my CD's. Do people know who I am here?" I said, "Yeah, you get airplay on our local NPR station, I think it'll be a good crowd." I thanked him and started to walk away after he signed and he said, "Hey, come on back to the dressing room and we'll talk." I replied, "No, I don't wanna bother you." (First rule of opening acts: Never ever, under any circumstances, bother the headliner.) Ed said, "I'm in that car eight hours a day, every day, by myself, I never get to talk to anybody, come on back." I looked around. "Don't you have a roadie?" I asked. Ed replied, "Do I look like I can afford a roadie?"

It turned out we had bought all the same records in all the same years (Lou Reed, The MC5, The Stooges, Mott The Hoople, The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Jim Carroll). We'd both witnessed nature’s most perfect rock & roll organism – The Who in 1969 – fifteen days apart: November 1st (me) and November 16th (him) when Keith Moon ruled the universe. We lived very similar rock & roll existences: i.e. played in bands for years, then went solo acoustic. We had the same kind of working class reprobate rocker friends; him in Syracuse, New York, me in Columbus, Ohio. It was like we were brothers who grew up in different zip codes.

When he was going onstage that night I said, "Hey, I've seen you play before, I know you're gonna break strings. Why don't you show me where your extra strings & tuner are and I'll switch them out for you if anything goes wrong." He just stared back at me and said, "Really?" "Yeah," I said, "doesn’t your opening act offer that wherever you go?" Ed replied, "No, nobody ever offers anything, anywhere, anytime."

I played roadie that night. I helped out around the Midwest after that. When tours with Ani Difranco came up in 2000 I got a tryout and made the grade. I stuck around. – Ricki C. / January, 2012

(editor’s note: As always, because it IS Ricki C. after all, this piece has been heavily edited & condensed from the original. For the complete blog, please visit Hamell On Trial, Growing Old With Rock & Roll, January, 2012.)

apropos of not much more than that I got to meet Wayne Kramer of The MC5 last Sunday at a Shadowbox Live gig, here's a bonus encore video of Hamell On Trial.

Colin's Coffee Employee to Ride Greyhound Bus to California and Back.

Annie Deibel isn't your average coffee shop employee. Recently graduated from Upper Arlington High School she will be attending Columbus School of Art & Design this fall. She also is actively pursuing a career in comedy and last spring spent two weeks working with Second City in Chicago.

For her summer vacation she is traveling alone from Columbus to San Francisco via San Diego and then back, all by Greyhound bus. Yeah, the actual Greyhound bus.

"I should meet some interesting people."

The bus leaves from downtown Columbus Sunday July 20th at 7 am.

If you wish to ride shotgun with Annie on her two week adventure, click here for the link to her Facebook page.