On The Jukebox: (Holiday Season is Here)

Jim White: Waffles, Triangles and Jesus

I’ve been a fan of Jim White since his first album, 1997’s  Wrong-Eyed Jesus. I became an even bigger fan after seeing the documentary film, Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus (various artists). I guess I’m just a sucker for records with a “Jesus” thread flowing through them. But only in the hands of the right artists. Terry Allen’s Salivation comes to mind. So does Johnny Dowd’s Temporary Shelter.

So, anyway, Jim White has released his first album in 20 years with “Jesus” in the title. What’s not to intrigue a believer in the historical Jesus, but a doubter of the twisted myth?

With songs like “Reason To Cry” and “Sweet Bird of Mystery,” this time around it’s a softer Jim White.  But just barely. There’s also “Prisoner’s Dillema.” Picture a scene in a Stephen King book/movie set in a backwoods church inhabited by snake handlers.

Like Dowd, White continues to be a master of unusual soundscapes, setting his work apart from your standard revivalist fare. The happy sound of banjos are in there, but so is the rain.
(Bill Glahn)

Jim Keaveny: Put It Together
Jim Kealveny has built a fine cowboy record, mixing in some mariachi horns and accordion, without ever straying too far from his native North Dakota. Keaveny’s delivery is soft-spoken, half-talked, half sung - sublimely attractive in a “howdy” sort of way.  And he has stories, good stories.

Put It Together doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But Keaveny throws enough ball cards into the spokes to create something unique. Think of it as a high plains drifter embarking on a journey to south of the border.  (Bill Glahn)

Bonus views:

On The Jukebox (Short Reviews)

(Bill Glahn)

John Baizly & Katie Jones “If I Needed You” (2013) I didn't know what to think when this came up in the suggested tracks on YouTube. Baizley's main gig is Baroness - one of those big production heavy metal/prog bands. Some call them cutting edge. If that’s the case, they’re over my head.

 “If I Needed You” is one of those great Townes Van Zandt songs that come out of a deceptively simple melody, relying more on emotional connection than virtuoso songwriting and playing skills. “How on earth is this guy going to pull THAT off?” is the first thought that came to mind. Curiosity can lead you to some unusual places.

It's nothing like Baroness. It's not even a straight Texas troubadour approach – one of those out-of-genre exercises that some artists and producers like to engage in to prove the artist’s “flexibility.” No, it wasn’t any of that.

Where Van Zandt’s version is sung in the here & now, this version conjures up a romance from the past. The contract has been surrendered – a bond that threatens to fade and never quite does. And then it finally does, but you know it will be back. Baizley & Jones’ version of “If I Needed You” rolls in like an Appalachian fog and leaves like a vanishing UFO. I dig it.

Brandi Carlile “The Joke” (2017) This one deserves attention for a lot more reasons than being one of Paul Buckmasters last arrangement projects. [Buckmaster died this week]. That isn’t to downplay Buckmaster’s role. The orchestration is astonishing – maybe one of Buckmaster’s best.

“The Joke” is the first single from Carlile’s new album, By The Way, I Forgive You. [Scheduled for release tomorrow.] It’s a BIG song – big production, big vocals, big emotion, big story. The kind of record that usually overplays the drama at the expense of everything else. The kind of song contestants will be singing on those godawful TV competitions with disastrous results for years to come. But the drama quotient on “The Joke,” boosted and pulled back at all the right moments by Buckmaster, is devastatingly good in the hands of a vocalist as supremely talented as Carlile. AND – it’s a great and honest song. It’s also a tough song. Street tough. No whining. Just the facts, sir. Listen up.

From The Archives - Used and Abused

by Bill Glahn

[This piece first appeared in the Chicago Reader 15 years ago. I hardly think the used CD license brings the city of Chicago much revenue anymore. The few stores that have survived specialize in used vinyl now.]

Update: Chicago's Record Emporium continued for years despite the ordinance. But there were other forces at work. Gentrification in Roscoe Village, where the Record Emporium was located, and other areas of Chicago, boosted rents far beyond the capabilities of small record shop owners.

The article:
This May [2002], Alderman Gene Schulter proposed the addition of two phrases to the city's secondhand-dealer ordinance: "digital audio disc" and "digital video disc." The law, which regulates the resale of certain items, was successfully amended in June, and those six words have had a severe impact on local independent record shops. At least one store has stopped selling used CDs, a clerk at Raffe's Record Riot was arrested, and Second Hand Tunes' Hyde Park store was shut down for failure to obtain a license after the four-store chain filed a federal lawsuit against the city. (It has since reopened under appeal.)

Municipal Code 4-264 is intended as a crime prevention tool--it requires stores that buy and sell used merchandise to obtain a special license (currently $500 annually); to qualify, applicants must pass a criminal-background check. Stores must also keep a log that lists used goods purchased and collect personal information to verify the seller's identity: name, address, phone number, height, weight, date of birth, and social security number. If the seller cannot present a picture ID the store must snap a photo or record the sale on video.

Only those used items considered prone to theft are included in the ordinance, and until June that meant audio-video equipment, cameras, computer hardware, watches, coins, and certain types of jewelry. Schulter introduced his amendment after receiving a letter from Lieutenant Lee Epplen of the 19th Precinct stating that in more than 80 percent of burglaries in the city CDs and DVDs were taken.

Used-CD shops have always been aware of the possibility that they're being sold stolen goods, which is why most already had a policy similar to that required by the secondhand-dealer statute. "The guy that tries to sell us stolen CDs this week will be stealing from us and trying to sell them to another store next week," says Mike Felten, owner of the Record Emporium in Roscoe Village, who has sold used and new records for 23 years. "Our policy is, 'We want to buy your used, not stolen, CDs. Photo ID required.'" But the new legal demands are more invasive, and, in the age of identity theft, disturbing to patrons. According to Felten, many customers who have come into his shop to trade in or sell used CDs have decided not to when asked for a social security number.

Such concerns are at the heart of the lawsuit Second Hand Tunes has filed against the city in district court. Represented by the firm of Horowitz and Weinstein, the chain is basing its suit on First and Fourth Amendment issues. "If you look at the other used items listed in the statute, none of them are items of speech and expression, as CDs and DVDs are," says the chain's attorney, Paul Horowitz. "Regulating items of speech and expression is a violation of First Amendment rights." As Second Hand Tunes owner Johnny Balmer puts it, "The city of Chicago has no right to document my customers' listening habits."

The suit also maintains that the actions taken by Chicago police to enforce the ordinance violated the company's constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Those actions, as documented in the suit, included requests to inspect "restricted" areas of the Lincoln Park store and to examine the customer information the ordinance required the store to collect, threats of arrests and fines, and a statement by an officer that any business that failed to comply with the ordinance would have "a difficult time when they attempted to renew any of their business licenses." According to the suit, the police visited the store six times in two months, the last three on consecutive days. (Second Hand Tunes has scrapped plans for another store in the city until the issue is resolved.)

The existence of many independent CD stores is already precarious--more than three dozen in the Chicago area have gone out of business in the last decade. Unlike large chains, independent stores can't buy direct from manufacturers and must pay between $1.50 and $3 more per disc to get them from middlemen. They certainly can't sell new releases as loss leaders at $9.99, as Best Buy does. Balmer says he can price new CDs no higher than $14.99 to $15.99 if he wants to stay competitive with national chain stores, for a profit margin of roughly 20 percent.

Used CDs offer a similar profit per disc (about $3 to $4), but cost considerably less to stock--the average profit margin on a used disc is 50 to 60 percent. Besides, Best Buy and Borders don't carry them at any price. Many independent shops rely heavily on used CDs to stay in business: Dead Wax in North Center is a 100 percent used operation, Second Hand Tunes does 95 percent of its business in used items, and the Record Emporium sells about half-and-half.

Mark Ferguson, owner of Hard Boiled Records and Videos in Roscoe Village, did just 5 percent of his business in used CDs--he says he bought them for the convenience of customers who wanted to thin out their collections. But because of the license fee and the law's intrusive requirements, he's no longer buying. "Now when someone brings in their unwanted discs, I have to refer them to my competition," he says. "I'm not necessarily sure that those customers will return to my shop when they want to buy new CDs."

Raffe Simonian, owner of Raffe's Record Riot in Portage Park, has had more serious problems. Raffe's keeps a basic transaction log, but on September 20 a store clerk bought several used CDs from an undercover police officer without obtaining all of the required information. Half an hour later the cops showed up. The store was shut down and the employee was put in jail; it was six hours before Simonian could bail him out. The charges were dropped, but the owner received a stern warning from city attorneys to bring the store into compliance. "Much of my business is still in used vinyl," says Simonian. (Vinyl LPs are not covered by the ordinance.) "I'm not some kind of crook or fly-by-night operation. I've been in this business for several decades and have a well-deserved reputation nationally for selling obscure jazz and 60s and 70s rock 'n' roll records.

"I see these actions as entrapment," Simonian continues. "I get the feeling that the city doesn't want independent stores around anymore."

Deliberately or not, owners say, certain legislative decisions made by the city over the past decade have made things increasingly tough on them. "In the nine years that I've been at my present location my rent has tripled. I already have to sell 30 used CDs each and every day, seven days a week, just to pay my rent," says the Record Emporium's Felten. "A lot of redevelopment has gone on in the last nine years, and corporate operations seem to be more desirable to the city planners and landlords. Independent businesses are getting squeezed, and this new license fee might just be the final straw for me."

Lost In The Flood: The Bus Boys “Minimum Wage Rock ‘n’ Roll”

(by Bill Glahn)

If many white folks have selective memory, there is no better evidence than Trump Chief-of-Staff John F. Kelly’s recent recollection of what was held sacred in his Boston neighborhood while growing up. The churches, the school system, relationships – all of those things were segregated in Kelly’s neighborhood. Journalist Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC, who grew up in the same Irish Catholic neighborhood, pretty much stomped all over Kelly’s recollection of how women were held “scared” there as well.

So it shouldn’t be any surprise at how many white folks relate the origins of rock ‘n’ roll to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. In reality, Presley could never be “King” as long as Little Richard was making records, although he was certainly crowned as such. The reality is that so many radio stations, especially in the south, had segregated play lists as well. So no Little Richard. No Chuck Berry. No Bo Diddley. None of those cats in their most productive years. Not in cracker-dominated areas, anyway. Thank jesus for Johnny Rivers, Elvis, Jerry Lee and the British Invasion or we’d have been left to watered down interpretations by the likes of Pat Boone.

When the post-punk New Wave years descended upon the once-again segregated airwaves (now under the safe “non-racist” cover of narrowing genres) there was still plenty of back-tracking to the true originators of rock ‘n’ roll, often without any due credit. Anyone recall the smash hit “I Want Candy?”

Along came The Bus Boys to reclaim rock ‘n’ roll from a Black perspective with Minimum Wage Rock ‘n’ Roll. Not exactly to a yawn from white America, but no sign of any great chart success either. It reached the lower registers of Billboard’s Top 200. Success wouldn’t come until two years later when the band hooked up with Eddie Murphy for the Movie “48 Hrs” and as the opening act for his subsequent “Delirious” tour. That may have been a double-edged sword for the band. The masses might have been able to accept a Black rock ‘n’ roll band as a joke – but only as a joke. And therein lies the racism. It’s only a joke if you dismiss the true origins of rock ‘n’ roll.

I recently came across a copy of Minimum Wage Rock ‘n’ Roll in a Springfield, MO flea market that apparently had seen no playing time. Springfield is easily the most racist city I’ve ever lived in. I don’t know what the original owner could have been thinking when he bought this record. But for a 37 year-old record to go that long with a needle dropping down on it maybe once, they certainly were not in love with it. Maybe they saw the front cover and thought they were experiencing a Howard Cosell moment. Maybe they perused the track listing and saw a song called KKK and figured, “Hey, back to the scared times.” But Minimum Wage Rock ‘n’ Roll is none of that.

The Bus Boys weren’t demanding candy. They were demanding equal wages. And they were using audacious lyrics to point out racism in the music industry as a present problem (then and now), utilizing the music of their Black predecessors to illustrate the white-washing of rock n’ roll history. “I wanna join the Ku Klux Klan/Playin’ in a rock ‘n’ roll band.”  What better way to illustrate the point? Obviously not something a Springfield redneck wants to hear.

How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live - Death And The Workplace

(by Bill Glahn)

When Blind Alfred Reed wrote “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” at the beginning of The Great Depression, he was singing about the hopelessness of poverty when there were no jobs available. Great advancements among the work force were made over the following decades, only to see them trickle away again over the last 40 years. Sure – the labor reports state very low levels of unemployment these days. But wages in real terms are fading.

But the most ignored concern among workers by media and politicians alike, is the abysmal state of workplace safety - the callous disregard for worker safety by employers. The stripping of OSHA funding and powers, including the absurd policy of “self-reporting” wherein company reporting of incidents replaces actual OSHA inspections. Restaurants receive far more scrutiny from the local health department than operations where heavy and dangerous equipment and chemicals are in daily use. And that has far more to do with the restaurant patrons’ safety than the actual safety of the restaurant workers.

When President Trump gave his speech last week in Springfield, MO asking for more corporate tax relief – the same “trickle down” economics that have failed American workers for the last thirty years - there was zero mention in the news reports about the abysmal safety record of Loren-Cook  the facility that Trump chose to give his (private) speech. And why should there be? Loren-Cook was exonerated in the death of one of their workers in 2009, weren’t they?

Well, no. Not really.

With about 1,000 employees, Loren-Cook is one of Springfield’s largest employers. Sales exceed $100 million per year.  But when it comes to spending some of that money to protect the safety of their workers, Loren-Cook not only can’t seem to find room in the budget – they show a callous indifference even after a worker dies.

On May 13, 2009, a flying projectile from a lathe where a protective guard had been removed killed a 59-year-old worker. Just two weeks earlier, another worker had reported that another flying projectile had barely missed him. You would think that after these incidents, surely, that Loren-Cook would reinstall the protective guards. Right?

Wrong.

From court records: "After the May 2009 accident that killed a worker, at least one lathe operator reattached a guard to his small lathe. A Loren Cook supervisor questioned the operator about the guard and later removed it. This guard, and other guards that previously had been used on small lathes, were purportedly removed for inspection. The guards, however, could not be located when demanded by the Secretary [of Labor] in this matter. The Secretary moved for sanctions alleging spoliation of evidence.”

OSHA made a finding in the case and issued a fine of over a half-million dollars. From Department of Labor/OSHA records:

"Loren Cook Co. willfully allowed its employees to work on dangerous equipment without safeguarding the machinery and exposed workers to debris ejected while operating manual spinning lathes," said acting Assistant Secretary for OSHA Jordan Barab. "It is imperative that employers take steps to eliminate hazards and provide a safe working environment."

Seven instance-by-instance willful citations at $70,000 each are proposed for failing to guard seven manual spinning lathes, with a total proposed willful penalty of $490,000. OSHA issues a willful violation when an employer exhibits plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

Three serious citations with penalties totaling $21,000 are proposed for a lack of adequate personal protective equipment for workers' faces, extremities and hands. OSHA issues a serious citation when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which an employer knew or should have known.

The proposed fines total $511,000.”

End of story? Not quite. An Administrative Law Judge (U.S.) overturned the fine on a technicality. “According to the ALJ, the regulation at issue only required guards on the lathes to prevent debris or waste material from being ejected; it did not apply to guard against the ejection of the actual item being worked on, i.e., the ejection of the actual workpiece.” [court document] With years of experience in the manufacturing process, I can attest that sometimes companies remove these necessary guards for efficiency reasons. As in, the “waste material” can sometimes clog the machinery and cause down-time for cleaning – easier to sweep the shavings from the floor, even at the expense of the workers safety.

In 2014 the Labor Department appealed the ALJ decision to the United States Court of Appeals, Eighth District. The Court of Appeals upheld the technicality. The Department of Labor issues an annual list of OSHA cases against companies after workplace fatalities. The 2014 fiscal year contains 61 pages with an average of 15 cases per page. The 2015 report (last available in pdf file lists 81 pages – an increase of 30% in one year. How can a poor man stand such times and live? It’s a question still worth asking – and for more reasons than one.

"My Way" and the Road to the Alt-Right

(by Bill Glahn)

road sign along Highway 65 in Harrison, Arkansas

If ever there was a more self-aggrandizing song based in perceived injustices, I can’t name one. The lyrics were written by ‘50s teen idol-turned songwriter, Paul Anka, who then passed it on to Frank Sinatra to record. He couldn’t have found a more suitable vehicle, Sinatra being a hypocrite (a public liberal and a private thug). Sinatra’s version reached No. 27 on the Billboard Top 100 and No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Over time, it became Sinatra’s signature song. Anka would go on to have a No. 1 hit in 1974 with the pro-life smaltz of “Having My Baby.” In a 2006 CNN poll for “worst song of all time,” “Having My Baby” had the dubious honor of being voted #1.

In the 49 years since “My Way” was released, it has also become the theme song of every angry white male to come down the pike. Written a mere 5 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and just 1 year after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, “My Way” held special significance for those whites that saw no need to upset the racial status quo in America.


“But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out.”

The “injustice” of Affirmative Action. The “indignant” intrusion of minorities into previously white-only neighborhoods and schools. And the idea that, somehow, each and every one of those white folks had independently been responsible for their own advancement to the top of the economic ladder.

“I faced it all and I stood tall”

As if no corporate CEO had earned his/her bloated salary on the backs of workers. And on down the chain, no wage earner had ever benefited from the “we” of unionism. No – they got to the status of a livable wage through their own hard work and rugged individualism. Just ask them.

But songs don't predict the future. They reflect the present. The alt-right has been with us for a long, long time.

“My Way” would eventually get it’s rightful place in the halls of notable American songs, not at the hands of Sinatra, but through a sneering rendition by Sex Pistol Sid Viscious and the video which accompanied it. In his artistic coup-de-grace, Viscious shoots the audience.

[Note to copyright maximalists: The take-downs of videos on YouTube that have been there for years and suddenly removed after appearing on this blogsite is an exercise in futility. There are plenty of options for Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Sore losers at the major labels and publishing companies? You lost.]

RIAA Doublespeak

(A blast from the past from the archives of Bill Glahn, September 25, 2003, Counterpunch )

                                  Copyright Anarchists "Freedom Pirates" (click to listen)


The RIAA is notorious for doublespeak. The mainstream press is notorious for reprinting it without question.


Try this recent example out for size. “We are only filing lawsuits against uploaders at this time.” That will surely calm the fears of any P2P file-sharer that has disabled the “upload” feature on their Kaaza software. Those nice guys at the RIAA don’t really want to deprive people of the pleasure of listening to music after all. They’re only after those “immoral” characters that distribute unauthorized song files.


So what exactly is the difference between an “uploader” and a “downloader” anyway? Until the RIAA announcement, I had always thought that uploading required a conscious effort on the part of the source. This column didn’t magically appear on the Counterpunch web site. Somebody at Counterpunch HQ had to send it there.


In commerce, an example of uploading might be the purchase of a Doublespeak dictionary from an online source. Let’s call the source Dweebster’s. Dweebsters sends (uploads) the software for their dictionary/dictionary to my computer when my credit card clears (hypothetical scenario). Until then, I can’t receive (download) their product. Another example might be that Dweebsters decides to sell a line of Doublespeak dictionaries in a variety of foreign languages. They “upload” the information to their online catalog. These acts require a conscious act on the part of the sender. The person initiating the transfer is doing the uploading.


P2P software has a different dynamic. The host just sits there and does nothing. The order to transfer comes from the end user. In other words, the “downloader” is also the “uploader”. They give the “send” command. The analog interpretation of the RIAA’s position might go something like this… I go to the library. I walk out with a book and never return it. The librarian is guilty of wrongful appropriation.


Only in the vernacular of the RIAA do the words “librarian” and “criminal” have the same meaning. If you think that disabling the “upload” features on your P2P software is going to protect you from RIAA terrorism, you had better think again. The RIAA has already said it won’t. You just don’t understand doublespeak.