Moving through another seasonal transition
in the most colorful way possible...
...and still nobody has bought this couch!
That’s a lot of look.
This is where decades collide
Because time is a flat circle.
Any time I’m in a record store I’m happy. My friend Bobby's new store looks fantastic and is stocked with new and old LPs, cassettes, 7” and 12” singles, 8 tracks, CDs and memorabilia. Better yet, The Soul Train makes frequent stops there and I always go wherever it takes me without question. Peace, love and soul.
Last weekend of the outdoor flea market.
It rained before my friend Steve and I got there and
everybody went home. Oh well. Whatcha gonna do?
Some work notes...
40 years after Duran Duran's debut LP comes their brand new album Future Past (on all three physical formats and digital). Multitextured, celebratory and anthemic, this album cements what I’ve said for decades: Duran Duran ALWAYS sounds like the future.
On the turntable
Triple Vaxxed
With A Flu Shot Chaser.
C’mon. Get In. Let’s Go For A Drive.
Autumn looks from a thrift shop
Fresh New Vinyl:
Blondie & Fab 5 Freddy - Yuletide Throwdown
Recorded in 1981 as a fan club flexidisc, this gem from the Blondie vault is now available on pink 180 gram vinyl with a remix by Cut Chemist and cover art by Hugogyrl. It’s also available for listening on all streaming services.
The last time I placed a new ABBA album on a turntable I was eight years old. I’ve waited 40 years for their next collection of new songs and much like catching up with old friends, it’s like no time has passed at all.
Recently Framed eBay Score: A very rare 1981 record store promo poster for Debbie Harry’s first solo album Koo Koo. Produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards from Chic and containing what was then deemed controversial cover art by H.R. Giger, this album took some bold, calculated moves away from the Blondie sound and vision to announce and establish Ms. Harry as a solo artist. Debbie’s look as a glamorous blonde pop goddess was traded for a severe brunette style and a quizzical Sphinx-like visage with metallic spikes painted through the sides of her face. This image alone was arresting enough to get promotional items containing the full image banned from some magazines and transit systems. Given these facts, it’s interesting to note that this promotional piece only shows Debbie’s eyes and forehead as a teaser. The album itself dove further into elements of the urban sounds that she and her partner Chris Stein had worked with previously on “Rapture”. KooKoo deftly blends some of these pop sensibilities with hip hop and jazz funk paired with what I can only describe as a sense of immediacy. This dark horse album remains a favorite of mine for its altogether outlier feel and sheer audaciousness. I don’t know one Blondie fan that doesn’t see this album for what it is: a sign of sounds to come in later decades. Like many far reaching pieces of art or music that dares to walk the ledge, it was misunderstood and in fact much maligned by some upon its release 40 years ago. I encourage those who don’t know the album to give it a listen. Consider how singular this once in a lifetime collaboration between Debbie, Chris, Chic and members of Devo truly was and how it may have shaped our current soundscape. Hey… Maybe we’ll even get a remastered deluxe version of KooKoo one of these days. I think the world is ready.
From The Archives • 25 Years Ago
David Bowie • Roseland Ballroom NYC • 1996
Recently, while looking through my sketchbook archive, I came across a 1996 volume containing some bittersweet artifacts: a Village Voice ad and ticket stub from a David Bowie show I attended with my friend Lorie. Over the years, many people have asked about my favorite live music experience of all time and this show always tops the list. This was the second of three times that I was lucky enough to see Bowie perform and having been in an intimate venue for 3,000 people, it was the closest I ever got to him while he was doing so. Lorie and I arrived at Roseland relatively early and got close enough to the stage to make eye contact with Bowie as he stepped up to the microphone in his now-iconic Alexander McQueen Union Jack coat, waved to the front rows and sang the opening lines of “Look Back In Anger”. The show was largely comprised of deep cuts (which pleased many of us die-hards) and a few singles (which pleased everybody) but the greatest surprises were delivered in the form of two new songs from an album that didn’t have a title yet. After performing the first of these, entitled “Little Wonder”, David asked the crowd “Should I call the new album ‘Earthling’ or “Earthlings’?” The nearly unanimous response favored the former title. When the second new song, entitled “Seven Years In Tibet” started with a sample of “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails, there was an audible scream of delighted recognition from everyone around me. Closing the set with the anthemic “Moonage Daydream”, Bowie bid us “God bless, goodnight!” and the woman standing to my left told me she had seen him perform it last in 1973 (the year I was born). Every time I saw Bowie on the street after this show I always wanted to thank him for that feverish, frenzied, intimate and altogether great performance but I never had the nerve to do so because I respected his private space (even in public). It’s just as well. I think the looks we exchanged whenever we would cross paths said it all. Thank you, David… and thank you Roseland Ballroom. I miss you both but I’m grateful that we coexisted for a time.
Onward toward December... Here we go.
From The Archives: Times Square (1992)
This past weekend, I was reorganizing my storage room and found a panoramic arrangement of 35mm prints that I shot in Times Square 29 years ago. They’d been long forgotten and stored in an envelope inside a large portfolio with some older work. The position of the sun tells me that these were shot at midday and it’s interesting to note how empty the streets are. This was the early 1990s as Times Square was transitioning from being the seedy underbelly of the city into becoming the entertainment megaplex it would later become. It’s also rather fitting and altogether uncanny that I should come across this forgotten set of images while I’m working on my new book, which involves a group of kids taking decade to decade time jumps through Times Square. Given this surprise discovery, it looks like I just had a time jump of my own! There are no coincidences and I’m taking this as a sign that my decades long fascination with Times Square and my current work which activates all of my gathered reference and ideas is the correct creative path to be taking now. Surprises and signs from the universe are everywhere if we’re ready to look, listen and receive them. Cheers to the past, present and future. Love, CDM
