Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ. - Bruce Springsteen in the Reflecting Pool

I didn't know if I would ever get to the big dog. I've been a Bruce fan since 1982, started seeing him in concert the first of 5 times in 2003. Like Rolling Stone I've always found myself being more forgiving of The Boss then i probably should be, since we are both from New Jersey, after all.
But, with the cover/original hybrid of High Hopes arriving this week, I thought, let's jump in.



Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. - 1973

I've heard that Springsteen wrote much of the tunes on the fly. Rewriting on the bus and so forth. There's so much legend and apocrypha surrounding the Boss it's hard to know what's true and what's not. But, see, even though he's a "man of the people", Bruce has been heavily marketed and branded from the beginning. His savvy on how to sell the Bruce Brand is remarkable. One of the reasons its so incredible is that he's managed to control his image, his sound, how he is perceived and heard without ever leading on that he is doing just that. In every way that he's been able to play the media/public game arena Queen was not. They always came across as corporate. Bruce seemed real.

The jangle guitar/bunch of dudes singing on a doorstoop street poet chaos of "Blinded by the Light" sets the stage. Once you hear it, it's impossible to enjoy Manfred Mann's cover, with it's over the top prog rocky-ness.

It's been written about for decades, but Springsteen's "New Dylan" mantle affects the album in a retrospective way. Turns it into a curio of sorts. Bruce would never wordsmith like this again. And some songs, like "Lost in the Flood" and "Mary, Queen of Arkansas" (shine boy for your acid brat? Yuck) suffer from it, where "Blinded", "Spirits in the Night" and "For You" (My personal favorite Springsteen song) all benefit. Weirdly, one of the best songs on the record, "Does this bus stop at 82nd st?" just feels half done. It doesn't end. It expires. Like he was writing it ON that bus uptown, and got to his stop and just stopped writing words. And yet, it works.

One of the things to love about records was that each side was a little show. We all know how Side 2 of Born to Run ends. The deepest cuts are inside the album. Sometimes the best are the ones closest to the center of the spinner.

Side 1 ends with the first attempt at an epic, "Lost in the Flood." The elements are there. The cars. The characters. It was the time of Mean Streets and street poets and Baretta. If Lost in the Flood feels like the streets of the lower east side it's supposed to. On the other hand, following it with The Angel is interesting. As a Side 2 opener it's terrible. The only salvation is knowing that the one two punch of "For You" and "Spirit in the Night" are next. Played in sequence, the angel could be an extension of the story of "LitF". The latter a macro look and the former a closeup of the story's main character. It works, even though the song is relatively weak and pedestrian.

Greetings is a disjointed album. Because the songs show up in concert often it doesn't sound dated but it's of its time. Vini Lopez's drumming is a treat every single time. He won't last with the band but the short time he was there he made an indelible mark.

Grade: B+
ASide: Blinded by the Light, Lost in the Flood, For You, Spirit in the Night
BlindSide: Does this Bus Stop at 82nd St? It's Hard to be a Saint in the City
DownSide: Mary Queen of Arkansas, The Angel

Adventures in Cord Cutting part 5 - 2 weeks in

Cutting the cord part 5. But it's really just an update. Or supplemental. Or aside. 

It's been a couple weeks since we got the tv in the media room and added the sectional. And last night was a milestone of sorts.

As you may have read before, the addition of Tivo and the digital antenna made it possible for us to have all of network programming without being attached to the satellite. 

Yesterday I searched for a show that my wife was really interested in. It's a french zombie show called The Returned. It ran on Sundance. And its not rerunning.

It's available for purchase on Amazon and on Vudu. I think the Vudu is cheaper.

We almost bought the season. What stopped us?

We have SO much other stuff to catch up on.

Downton Abbey. Sherlock. Network shows. Movies. And, as the new season ramps up there are stand bys like Amazing Race that will fill the queue. And, dammit, I wanna catch up on Doctor Who!

Then, last night, we found ourselves needing to watch the Sag Awards. I won't argue the merits of the broadcast because I have friends who were there, were part of the show and this article isn't the forum for that. But, the Saggies are on TNT. And that's on the tv downstairs.

The thing I noticed and am reporting is that, after deleting everything off the DirecTV DVR that we either already have upstairs, have already watched or can watch on Hulu, all that was left was a couple episodes of American Horror Story.

I'm paying a monthly satellite charge for this? Seems cray cray. Especially since we are parents of kids with busy schedules. By the time we get the kids down and settle in, it's after 8 and we are generally in bed before 10.

Suffice to say that I think this transition is going to be easier for us and people like us because we don't have an entire Prime Time block to devote to entertainment.

And, by the time we get around to carving out some viewing time for The Returned, it'll probably be available on Netflix or Amazon.

This takes work, mind you. The transition isn't super simple. One reason is how to figure out where anything is.

For instance: My Roku box downstairs has a search field that scans ALL downloaded apps for a show. So, if I am looking for, say, The Returned, Roku will tell me which app it's available on and a quick scan tells me if it's part of "Prime" or free.

My Tivo does the same thing, except that it doesn't integrate with Amazon Prime or Vudu, or any other apps besides Hulu, YouTube and Netflix.
[UPDATE: Tivo included these apps in its service and now offers the opportunity to add them to your list via streaming. And you can stream directly from the wi-fi on the Tivo main screen. 1/2/1917]

So, in order to find The Returned, I kind of have to either go to each app and look for it, remember the cost and decide on the best value OR use some app on my phone like, CanIStreamIt, which is not totally comprehensive or trustworthy. (I'm on the lookout for another app to help with this)

But, once you get past the struggle to find the show you want, it's all relatively easy.

I am intrigued to see how the various channels and outlets will react to cord cutting. I'm not really missing a thing. Well, yes, I can only watch the first three episodes of Girls when HBO puts them on YouTube, but, save for the fact that the show is excellent and I'm not just saying that because friends of mine are working on it, I'm not really, truly the demo for that show. (However, since we will definitely keep cable through True Blood's season, I'll be able to watch. This year.)

In a strange twist I have found that I am more inclined to want to watch network programming ON the network than on Hulu. I can watch or fast forward through commercials, but that's not the reason. Somehow I just feel a bit more connected to the network that way. Odd.

As a footnote to this piece:
There has been discussion among other friends about which app to pay for: Netflix or Amazon. I think both have value, the latter being not just the programming but the ability to order a $6 package of picture hangers and have them delivered, for free, on a Sunday. (They are coming today)
But, as a reminder, Netflix has signed a deal with Disney and Disney has all the Star Wars stuff now. I imagine that there will be a big synergistic push from the two companies as we get closer to the nerdgasm that will be the JJ Abrams Star Wars VII.

Previous cost of just DirecTV with HBO and Showtime: $117+ per month.
Current cost of DirecTV without HBO/Showtime: Approx $80
Cost of premium apps + TiVo: $35 or so. This number will decrease over time, since the cost of the Tivo lifetime service will be prorated over 5 years and come down from about $12 p/m to $6 p/m

We are paying about $2 less per month for the experiment.

Adventures in Cord Cutting - Part 4 - Hello, Old Friend.

Adventures in Cord Cutting - Part 4 - Hello, Old Friend.

Where was I? 
Oh, yeah. 
Too busy was I watching 3D movies and making artists like Gordon Willis and Gregg Toland look bad via high definition that I didn't really pay attention to the over the air (OTA) status.
And then I ordered my Tivo.
Now, I'm first going to just tell you how freaking great it is to have this old friend back in my life.
I bought my first Tivo in 03. But I heard about it in 99 during a late late late night infomercial I saw in a hotel in NYC. I completely ignored my company that evening as I was mesmerized by this new technology.
"This is a game changer." I thought. And I was right.
Our first Tivo was a blessed addition to our lives. The familiar "Bloop bloop bloop!" was like a friendly call. I enjoyed how Tivo would try to guess what I wanted to watch and usually get it wrong. But when it got it right, it was oh, so right.
We got our series 2 a few years before the HD boom. And when we moved on to our HD plasma, Tivo was relegated to the bedroom. For the teeny TV. I got my money's worth, however. If you just use it for 4 years, it's comparable to any other DVR. And Tivo's service is just plain better. Better suggestions. Better and more cooperative interface. DirecTV just never really got it right.
And then I heard about Tivo's Roamio Basic. (https://www.tivo.com/shop/roamio) $199 from Tivo but knocked down to $150 at Amazon.
See, Tivo and DirecTV sort of got along, but never really. I had a couple DirecTVTivos and they were fine for the small tv in the old kitchen. But, when I had to switch to DirecTV completely, the DVR was sorely lacking.
Clunky. Difficult to maneuver. Just a pain in the ass. And then the remote went out. And that meant I had to fire up the iPad to use that as a remote and THAT would spend 30 seconds seeking out the DVR every time I switched out of the app.
Horrendous.
But the Roamio Basic was something different. Something that could make this whole endeavor work:
It was the only Tivo that worked with a digital Antenna. (And a cable card, but we aren't using that, remember?)
I could connect from a digital antenna directly to the Tivo and get HD quality broadcast channels. And that's what this is really all about, right?
The cable/satellite congloms sort of have people over a barrel. Unless you can get some after market DVR or want to manually program to watch OTA programming, you're gonna have to subscribe to them, right?
But, not with this.
I ordered it from Amazon. I love Amazon and they are fast and make returns a snap. My new Tivo came the next day.
But, that installation.
Geez! 5 whole minutes!

Tivo immediately went to work. Yep. CBS is there. And NBC. And some other weird NBC 2. And the local channel, 5. And 5.2, which was showing reruns of WKRP and The Outer Limits. And another strange 5.something, which was running Capote in SD.
ABC, check.
Fox. Fox SD. Fox again. Okay. PBS. Yep.
All good.
Go to work Tivo.
I'll just scan.
And I did. Just like the old days. Around the local dials.
The game on CBS looked amazing.
NBC had some sports thing.
And ABC was showing....wait, what are they showing?
Why can't I get a signal? Is there a storm coming?
What's with all the pixellation, ABC?
Let's try FOX.
That signal's not even coming in!

Now, this is no good. The whole show hinges on the ability to do this very thing.

My location is fine. I live in the heart of Los Angeles. What's wrong?
Oh, yeah. It's that shitty amplified rabbit eared antenna, I bet.

I returned that and ordered a flat Amazon Digital Antenna (http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Performance-Ultra-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B00DIFIO8E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1389325129&sr=8-4&keywords=digital+antenna)


So far, so good. The signal seems stronger, but It's only been a day.

In addition, as a holiday gift, mi madre shelled out for a Sennheiser wireless audio system. One base station and one headphone. (We'll have to get the other one on our own dime. Gotta check and see how that renter's account is doing...)

So, what's next?

Well, we need that sectional and the other headphone and then we need to start parking our carcasses upstairs. If Beth and I can get used to not having immediate access to 99% of stuff we don't watch so we can have access to the 1% we do, then we are good to go.

We can then cut the DirecTV cord and get a Tivo Mini.
What's that?
Oh, that's a little streaming device that turns another tv into a Tivo.

But for that I have to run a wire. Or a MoCa connection.

Or something.

For the time being, this is where we are.

The cord isn't cut. It's just on the chopping block.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Adventures in Cord Cutting - Part 3 - Santa Tenants

Adventures in Cord Cutting - Part 3 - Santa Tenants

Something happened this year that hasn't happened in a long, long time. And it coincided with a decision not to do something that we usually do and always want to:
First, we didn't have any major renovation bills or medical things this year. No In Vitro. No guest house demo. No new Kitchen. For a while it felt like if we weren't renovating something, we were buying a car or making babies in jars or having babies or something.
This year...nothing.
In addition, because of general exhaustion (mainly due to Zachary being, you know, almost 3) we decided to forego the annual LuluPalooza Holiday Spectacular. I don't think either of us had it in us this time.
What this meant was we had a little leftover in the family funds world. Our rental units are really just supposed to provide for the mortgage and repairs, etc. Without the latter, there was something extra in the kitty this year. And we decided to devote it to our own little oasis upstairs.

First off, we ordered that sectional. (It still hasn't arrived, btw). It would take time to deliver and that would give me the time I needed to figure out the gadgets that would make this endeavor work.

First off, the TV.

Let me say, 3D or no 3D, tvs are cheaper than they were when we bought our flat screen. I think we paid about $1400 for a Panasonic 1080i plasma. That's an 'i", not a "p". That was almost 7 years ago.
For about $800 we could get a 50" LG LED 3D. Same size TV, but with much of the apps we use our Roku for: Netflix, Vudu, Spotify, pandora, Amazon, Hulu, you get the idea.
But, I couldn't pull the trigger.
Life got in the way. In a great way, I mean. Holidays. Travel. Work. Volunteer stuff. Kids. Family. It just never was possible to get to the store to really make the decision. (I'm not really one for ordering anything bigger than my door online)
Then, when I was ready, guess what? No more 50" TVs. Wait, what?
Somehow, the majors decided that 47 or 55 inches were the standard. That's interesting because 47 inches would be too small for a media room that would seat 6-8 comfortably. Gravity would look like Carl Sagan's Cosmos on that. Man of Steel would look like Lois & Clark.
But 55 inches? That's 49 inches across. A full 5 inches wider than the dedicated wall space.
Would the door clear it? Would it swallow the room? Ugh.

There was really no other choice. I had decided that I wanted an LG LED. I liked the colors and the vibrancy. And I also liked the price of the LG 3D blu-ray player. And everything accesses all the app platforms we use and should play well together. And, it was really just about $100 more.

So, home I headed with the toys in tow, including the rabbit ears for the digital signal and some movies to get our media room started. And a tv table. Simple one, with glass tables.

Btw, the ONLY thing that was broken upon unpacking was the bottom shelf of tempered glass for that table. I didn't even open the box containing it until I had put together the table. So, I had to return just that shattered glass and they replaced it immediately.

The TV was a simple set up. Plugging the antenna in was a snap. Five minutes later the scan was complete and there were all my local channels.
Bright.
Clear.
Exceptional.
In fact, after years of cable and then satellite I can report that the OTA signal is the best and clearest I've ever seen. Maybe its the tv, but, holy cow does this look good.

I spent the bulk of the first few days watching Betas and Alpha House on Amazon and Skyfall on Netflix and...something on Hulu. Only occasionally dropping into the networks. I still didn't have a DVR so why watch if I can't pause, man?

I also spent a LOT of time playing with the 3D settings. Watching the crisp conversion of Man of steel or getting caught up in Wreck It Ralph (again) or taking old movies, like Manhattan or Citizen Kane, and turning them into kinescope videos with bad lighting and terrible quality.

I didn't notice any trouble.

Until I moved on to Phase 3....

Next - Hello to an old friend and, wait, is there a snowstorm coming?

Adventures in Cord Cutting - Part Deux - The Room Reshuffle

Adventures in Cord Cutting - Part Deux - The Room Reshuffle

For a while Beth and I were thinking about creating some sort of "playroom". The kids each have a room of their own and Beth had her office, which she could retire to. I, on the other hand, just sort of floated with macbook or iPad or book in tow. 
The kids had completely come to dominate the "tv room" downstairs. Once Zoe figured out how to operate the Roku remote, all bets were off. Until they would go to sleep, that room was basically off limits to me unless I wanted to party down with Word Girl, travel to Word World or experience the surreal adventures that are The Magic School Bus.
A friend of ours redid their attic for a pittance ($10000 or so), adding value to their house and creating just that hideaway/game room/tv room that I would've loved. So, we asked his contractor to come and give us an estimate. We weren't looking to spend 10 grand or so, but, if it would add resale to the house.......
"About $36,000." The contractor said. turns out that our attic is larger and u-shaped and, well, I dunno. It was about $26,000 bigger. And we weren't about to spend that kind of dough.
I thought about converting the garage. it's pretty barebones and downtrodden, but a couple pieces of drywall, some carpeting, we could actually make something happen out there.
Of course, that would be consigning anyone who wanted to use it to Siberia, but, hey, it's an idea.
Until I started building furniture. And hanging tools. And storing wood.
Suddenly the playroom didn't seem practical when the workshop was acting as the shop it was supposed to be.
Then, Beth and I talked about just making the tv room more comfortable. She'd always wanted a sectional, after all. I thought mayyyyybe we could squeeze one into the tv room and make it more pleasurable. It's a small space, though....
And one day, it hit me:
Beth's office! This was an entire bedroom being used for that purpose. The purpose of running the house. Now, this is a big job and I appreciate what she does, cuz, lord knows, I don't wanna do it. But, it's not like we are running a company. Maybe we could...just move....her office.....lemme check.
Wow. Her desk, filing cabinet and all the acoutrements from printer to router to storage, would all fit in the sun room. This is a little 8 x 5 room where would always put guests on a single bed. It was cute, but small.
But, her stuff fit there PERFECTLY.
Let's move the office in there and make the office the media room!
She agreed to think about it but there was always the concern that, since it's next to Zoe's room and across the hall from Zack's, noise would be a problem.
And she would be right about that. it's an old house. The walls are made of paper.
We live in the hood so it's actually made of rolling papers, but, that's even thinner.

So, we treaded off to Living Spaces. Some of you might recall my outreach for furniture store ideas on facebook.
We listed about 5 places to go to and the first one was LS. Well, that place has certainly changed!
We didn't need to go anywhere else. Because what we were looking for was right there.
And so was Paul's TV.
As Beth was picking out styles and colors I ventured into Paul's. This was on Zack's first day of day care. We felt free. We'd already had breakfast together for the first time, alone, in months.
Now, we could shop for furniture with ease and time.
Beth came in to the TV room and I showed her the 3D televisions. I'm a sucker for tech. And these guys are smart. They know how to hook ya. Beth isn't as much of an easy mark for stuff like new TVs, so they tossed on the 3D Blu-Ray of Tangled and her eyes widened. Glorious.
Still, we didn't need a new tv. That wasn't what we were doing. We were just replacing a sofa with a sectional.
A small sectional.
Somehow we got on the conversation about noise. Surround sound, etc.
"Well, you can plug in to these tvs." The salesman said. Something I'd never thought about.
"And run a wire?" I asked, cuz I'm, you know, dumb."
"Nah. Get some wireless headphones."
Wait. What?
"Well," Beth said, "If we did that, then we could really turn that room into the media room and make the downstairs room the guest room when people come to visit. That bed is a sleeper, anyway."

Boom.

No $36,000 retrofit of an attic. No exiled garage conversion.

This might work after all.

Next time - The Santa Claus Incursion (or, How I learned to stop complaining and love my tenants)

Adventures in Cord Cutting. Part 1 - Just thinking 'bout it.

I love TV. I think it should go without saying that it wasn't my love of Broadway or film that drove me to wanting to be in this business. No. I wanted to be on TV. That was the dream. It's always been the dream.
I love the boob tube.
A few months ago I did some number crunching and compared the amount of outlay to usage. What I first learned was that, just by dropping HBO and Showtime we could save $360 a year. But, would we miss all great quality programming? Yes. And No. Sure there are terrific things there for us to watch. Girls. Game of Thrones. Homeland. The Newsroom. True Blood. Nurse Jackie. But we weren't watching much of the rest. Now. A season pass to all of those shows on iTunes or Amazon or Vudu would cost about $200. So, we would be saving $160 by just cutting those nets out.
But, what about the rest of cable?
Mad Men. American Horror Story. Walking Dead. There really aren't that many other shows we can't live without. And, truth be told. If we just want to wait a year, they are all available on Netflix. But, let's say we want them now. To be current.
That's about another $110 a year. Let's just add another show and round up. So, by dropping HBO and Showtime, forgoing the shows we don't watch and buying the ones we do, we can buy 10 shows and those premiums will just pay for that.
If we cut the cord and dump DirecTV in toto, that would be an additional $80+ a month.
Well, certainly we can't just drop everything, right?
We subscribe to Amazon Prime already, $6.60 a month. $80 a year.
Netflix, despite the mediocre content, (although they get a lot of the shows we would be watching) is, what? $8 a month? $96 a year.
Hulu would give us the cache of a full Criterion Collection movie library, but, more importantly for me, NBC, ABC, FOX and Comedy Central. $8, $96.
But, damn that CBS. How can I get my Chuck Lorre comedy fix? Or A repetitive procedural? Or that Race which is Amazing???
More importantly, what about Football, Baseball, The Super Bowl, the Oscars, The Tonys, The Emmys, The Olympics?
Tivo Roamio + a $35 digital antenna. The Roamio basic can record over the air in high def for $13 a month. But, since we were lifetime subscribers with our last Tivo Box, we get a discount on the lifetime. $400. Over 5 years that comes to about $6.70 a month or $80 a year.
$30 a month or $350 a year. That's a $970 annual savings on the basic plus premium package.
If the average cost of a subscription to those above shows is $37, that's another 26 season passes on TOP of the ones I named above.
35 season passes. That's just not gonna happen. Who has the time???

And the video quality is supposed to be better than the compression on satellite or cable.

Since I wasn't sure we were going to even think about trying this, I never posted this even though this has been in the planning stages for about 4 months.

Phase 1 was consideration.
Phase 2 was early implementation without complete cutting.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Bon Jovi - What About Now

Bon Jovi - What About Now - 2013

I know, I know...I never reviewed The Circle. I just couldn't bring myself to find it. To buy it. To borrow it...anything. And, yes, I've had a "Bon Jovi - The Circle" playlist on Spotify for over a year. Sue me.

I will, I promise. (I'm not promising you, whoever you are. It's a promise to myself.)

So, why give this a spin? I have no answer, truly. I'm kind of in the mood for big, dumb stadium rock. And BJ can usually satisfy that need for MOR toe tapping.

From the start, What About Now fulfills my craving. "Because We Can" is as a Jovi-esque opener as I've heard, although as I write this, the title track has come on, the third on the record, and I'm dumbstruck at what I'm hearing: Bon Jovi seems to have listened to Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball a lot this year and decided to just ape it. ("Pictures of You" is a leading offender here) Why not? They're both from Jersey and BJ has never had an original thought. It's not that "What About Now" is bad, per se. It's just something that sounds like it was written by committee. Or a machine. The Bon Jovi-Stadium ready-Rock Song Conveyor belt.
Tracks like "What's Left of Me" has that midtempo Springsteen contrapuntal music to theme ratio. But it works.

 Once you settle into that aesthetic it's easy(er) to accept the record. It's Bon Jovi with a helping of Bon Jovi in a Bon Jovi simmer sauce.
You know what you're getting here. We've been getting it. for 30 years. That said, it's listenable. If you want this stuff. Fortunately, it hit the spot.

Grade: B
ASide: Because We Can, What's Left of Me
BlindSide: Pictures of You, That's What the Water Made Me
DownSide: Room at the End of the World

The Cars - Move Like This

The Cars - Move Like This - 2011

And ironic title, considering that when The Cars played live they were like watching a Disney animatronic band.
Move Like This is exactly what one would expect from The Cars. Driving mid tempo, synth driven songs that could have been recorded in 1983.
Where Door to Door showed a band that was clearly ready to be done, Move is the opposite. There's nothing to lose for the guys. Egos are dispensed with. It's just time to make another, template cut, album.
Some tracks sparkle, "Blue Tip", "Too Late", "Sad Song", and the ballads find their way without being obnoxiously "inventive".
In fact, "Sad Song" is a near perfect rip of "My Best Friend's Girl". Handclaps, driving bass, provided by Jacknife Lee, swirling synths, aural space. It's a welcome old friend. As is "Free", which continues to mine the same Carsian tropes. Considering how often the band has let me down for their love of Ocasek's more experimental, arty pursuits, this is welcome. (Much like the recent Devo reunion album was)

Ocasek actually channels Orr's softer, higher register on "Soon" and, he creates a nice blend of the two of them. It's a sweet and gentle piece that evokes a gentler, less controlling aspect of the band. But it is unfortunate that the most sludgy piece is called "Drag on Forever". Cuz it does. (And it sounds a lot like a Cars version of a Monster-era R.E.M. song.....) As does the middling, "Take Another Look" which is covered in the stench of the 80s, like it's a song desperately seeking a soundtrack over whose credits it's crying to be played.

For the most part, Move Like This fits nicely in the catalog. Not as great as Heartbeat City, Candy-O or The Cars, but so so so much better than Door to Door and superior even to Shake it Up, although without that album's massive single.

Grade: B
ASide: Blue Tip, Sad Song
BlindSide: Soon
DownSide: Drag on Forever, Take Another Look

The New Cars - It's Alive [File Under: The Cars]

The New Cars - It's Alive - 2006

Okay, so this is a one off. But, I had to include it.
First off, Rundgren has Ocasek's nervous, forced, paranoia voice down.
The backing harmonies, spot on.
Easton's Roy Thomas Baker/Brian May inspired solo.....
The pulsating, driving beat...Hawkes' layering synths.....the snarky lyrics......

THIS is what I have been waiting for since Heartbeat City.

I'll leave the live portion of the album to you. I couldn't care less. The three studio tracks are all i cared about.

The New Cars was really just Easton and Hawkes. Prairie Prince of The Tubes played drums. The aforementioned Rundgren on Rhythm and vox.

The irony here is that The Cars, a band I saw perform live at Madison Square Garden in 1980, was one of the most boring live acts EVER. I remember it vividly because there was no reason to see them. They sounded JUST like the album and nobody on stage moved. At MSG! And yet, the record they put out was 3 studio tracks and the rest was a live album. Hilarious.

"Not Tonight" is the lead single. And it's one of my favorite Cars tracks...ever.
"Warm" is the "Drive" of the album. Mediocre but spot on.
"More" is the would-be second single. Fun and stupid. And makes me wish there had been a whole album.

Grade: B+

Ric Ocasek - Nexterday [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Nexterday - 2005

It took about 27 years but Ric Ocasek finally made his dream come true: An album of songs written by him, sung by him, produced by him and, most importantly, featuring instruments played by him. Well, not all. He didn't play bass. And he didn't play guitar on ONE song. Or keys on TWO. And he had help with the rudimentary drum programming. But, hey, this is as close as he's been able to get.

Some of the songs, like "Bottom Dollar" &"Don't Lose Me" would probably actually sound pretty good if they didn't just sound like demos recorded in someone's spare bedroom on a laptop. And there's something so inviting and relaxed about "A Little Bit" that I like. Or maybe I've been beaten down after 2.5 decades of this guy's music.

"Silver" is Ric's song for the late Ben Orr. I've never found Ocasek to be very emotionally engaging. An ominous bass leads off, a two note throb takes over and then...lyrically, knowing what the song is about...it's heart wrenching. "You were my right hand. You were my friend. You were always strong until the end." It's easy to forget that they started the Cars together and had known each other since the early 70s in Boston. They were in a folk band called "Milkwood" who released one record in 1972. Obviously, Orr meant more to Ric than I ever imagined. Right up to the end. "You were my good time. You were my rave. You're the one that always set the stage......"
Devastating.

Nexterday demands very little from the listener. It's easy and comfortable, like an old slipper. Ocasek is a rich, elder statesman rock star with children and a wife and none of the trappings. So, he's got no one to impress, he just wants to make music. And that's what he does.

Grade: B-
ASide: Bottom Dollar, Silver
BlindSide: Don't Lose Me
DownSide: I'm Thinking