House Keeping

 Hey, for what it's worth, I'll be posting the links to this week's Gibberish either tomorrow night or Saturday morning, depending when I get tomorrow night's knocked and what kind of mood I'm in. We'll see what comes out.

 I think for the foreseeable future, I'm going to stay with putting all the Gibberish on the WordPress site and try to come up with something clever for this. If you wish for more of my sublime genius, there's also the Tumblr blog for writing about music and art, plus the occasional dip of the toe into political discourse. I try not to interact with people as much as possible, especially on line. I really don't like conflict, to be honest, and I'm perfectly comfortable with the size of my dick.

 For more jibber-jabber, there's the Twitter feed, but even there I don't go seeking arguments with random internet yay-hoos who can't be slapped if they deserve it. I do occasionally go back-and-forth with someone whose opinion and intelligence I already respect, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to out-scream some right-wing dingbat or cosplay socialist, neither of whom really bother to read up on whatever drives them to such couch-chewing rage if you disagree with them.

 I guess I could use this for random, late-night navel gazing when I can't sleep, much like I'm doing now, or the odd outraged shout into the Void when the mood strikes. I'm going to try to keep it bellyaching-free as much as possible, especially since I can't keep it out of the WordPress site. Or for that matter, the Tumblr blog or the Twitter feed, but what are you going to do. Find me a writer who isn't an ego-driven clown that can't help telling what kind of whiny asshole they are. Can't be done. Proust? Camus? Faulkner? Humongous piss-babies.

 I do wish I could come up with something specific to write about beyond my fascination with politics and the odd bellyache. I do want to write up a review of Swamp Dogg's new record, though. Maybe I'll post that here with links in that night's Gibberish. I may also review the Bottle Rockets' most recent record, Bit Logic, even though I'm two years behind the curve. I finally got around to listening to it, though, and it's really, really good. Arguably their best record front-to-back since Brand New Year almost 20 years ago.

 I love the Bottle Rockets, and since Dancing Eagle left the Supersuckers, they might be might favorite band I don't know as well as I know The Drive-By Truckers. Dancing Eagle - and I don't know his given name and can't find anything online that tells me - was the original drummer, and I've come to decided that a good rock & roll band centers primarily around its rhythm section. Furthermore - and I'm a bass player, so I hate to admit this - you got to have a good drummer. The Band had Levon Helm, the Rolling Stones have Charlie Watts and the Beatles have Ringo Starr. Why did the Who bore on their last two albums? Keith Moon died. Why did Led Zeppelin break up? John Bonham died. Drummers are important. You can plug in any guitarist or bass player you want, but once you lose that main-most drummer, the game is over.

 The only band I can think of off the top of my head that shakes this rule of thumb is Lynyrd Skynyrd, who had two great drums during their classic years in Bob Burns and later Artemus Pyle. Of course, once Skynyrd reformed in the early '90s, Pyle only lasted two records which are, coincidentally, the only two post-plane crash studio albums worth listening to. I don't blame that on Pyle leaving, though, so much as Ronnie Van Zandt was such a good songwriter that he just could not be replaced.

  The reunion album Booker T. & The MG's did back in the '90s, That's The Way It Should Be, recorded after Al Jackson's death in 1975, is pretty fun, but they're such a iconic, recognizable sound. You get a solid enough drummer, you're good, and they had Steve Jordan who is rock solid. I haven't put too much time into their first post-Jackson album, Universal Language, so maybe I should see how my theory holds up immediately after the fact. Indeed, the band's most popular, well-known song "Green Onions" featured original bassist Lewie Steinberg rather than the legendary Donald "Duck" Dunn, who dies in 2012. Hopefully, Booker T. and Steve Cropper won't ever pull a Who.

 Okay, that was fun. I've let this sit for half-and-hour while I put a bunch of Eric Ambel songs back on my iTunes, so I might as well wrap it up and post it for no one to read.