mY 37 FaVOrite AlBuMs oF aLL TiME

or:    DiAry Of a A MusIC sNob  by JoE kOta$

The albums that I love the most!  The ones that had the most profound effect or gave enormous listening pleasure to my soul...

1. P Smith Horses. My pick for the absolute masterpiece of all time.  Transcendent creation peak combination of words, poetry, artistry, imagery, death and fascination.... patti in her prime.
the words r just rules and regulations to me
2. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel .  The Psychomodo.  this little known classic gets number two cause it deserves recognition.  one collection of unique folk rock/ glam with a 1st class vocalist and feel good songwriting.  love it!!
3. Forever Changes.  Arthur  Lee and Love's timeless masterpiece.
4. Ultravox. Systems of ROmance.  not a bad one in the bunch of knock your socks off electropop, atmospheric, overdrive.  in the blue light.. blue light!
5. Blue Oyster Cult. Agents of Fortune.  This is the sumer of 1976 time capsule of the USA. Break out masterpiece collection of barnstorming rock n roll ..and of course, the reaper.
6. Terje Rypdal. Odyssey.  four sides of ambient scandinavian majick.  since when does a trombone sound so good? Precursor of ambient.terje rypdal odyssey

midnight in norway.
7. The Doors.  The Doors. Dark, with great cover.  Doors album covers were just SO weird!! not to mention Jimi Hendrix are you experienced which my brother bought when he was like 5 and father had a stroke and made him take it back to sattler's.
8. Eno. Taking Tiger Mntn by strategy.  just out there! beautiful masterpiece, oblique strategy.
9.Echo & the Bunnymen. Crocodiles.  da bunnymen pack more emotion in one album than any 50 Beatles songs!  they ushered in the 80s in europe!
10. Buffalo Springfield.  Again.  Gorgeous songs for playing outside. water in a desert.  ...
by now, u realize this list has no logical progression....
11. Talking Heads REmain in Light.  i think it's their best although the others are friggin great too. especially talking heads 77.
12. D Bowie the man who sold the world.  this one struck me as his most captivating/bizarre. it really made my brain short circuit. but how could you forget DIamond Dogs? OMG! Scary Monsters!! Bowie!!
13. Human League Dare. well, who didn't dance their ass off to half the songs on this album??
14. Gary Numan and tubeway army. replicas.  OUT THERE!  another to usher in the 80s in a major way. down in the park, are friends electric galvanize Numan as a force to be reckoned with.
15. Japan, Gentlemen deserve Polaroids.  cause i can!
16.  999, high energy plan.  wow!!

17 Blind faith
18 Yaz. Upstairs at Erics.  This was IT!  should be on anyone's list.
don't stop now boys!

19. joy division. closer. scary good.
20. Nick Cave. Futurama.  wow. another twenty feet of snow from nick cave.
21 Todd rundgren's utopia.  scratcccchhhh.. deleted from this list upon last listening. got old.
22.  Simple Minds. Life in a Day. as fresh as a Playboy magazine to a teenager.
23. Dead can Dance.  Dead can Dance.  Took serbian folk ballads into the 4th dimension.
24  the national.  alligator.  bouillabaisse for the ear.  thanks lisa!
25.  stranglers.  Black and White.  this should be higher on the list.  a friggin masterpiece. no holds barred. rhythm and keyboards. is it punk? is it new wave? unclassifiable fantastic.
26.  tindersticks.  tindersticks.  my love affair w tindersticks lasted about ten years. as the name implies, they will start a fire in your body and soul.
27. Magazine. Real Life.  this should be higher up on the list. a frickin game changer!!
can't touch this
28. Skids. Days in Europa.  wham bam thank u man.

29. Genesis  Foxtrot containing the ultimate masterpiece supper's ready.
30. ELP Pictures at an exhibition.  bombast .... but good bombast.
31.  van der graaf generator.  still life/godbluff.  two legendary prog rock albums. how to pick 1?
32. Blur Parklife.  listened to it about 50 times.  aural sex.
33. Fruit of the Original Sin.  Disques du crepescule compilation.  mood to the mood power.
34  Television. Marquee Moon/ Adventure. hard to pick one.
35. pink floyd . dark side of the moon.
36. Yes. Relayer.  mainly cause my friend Jeff rated it his fave of all time. and well.. gates of delirium!
37.  Umm... what happened to 37?  Well, Snowy Red, The Right to Die should be on here.

that's it.  thanks for listening!  xox  JK  august fourteenth fourteen

NICK CAVE, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, JUNE 20, 2014

And some people
Say it's just rock 'n roll
Oh, but it gets you
Right down to your soul
............................review and photos by Joe Kotas.................................

Mind blown. What can I say??

Okay, let's start with the opening band.. Warpaint played.  I'm sorry, they were just plain lame.  Plucking at their instruments, kinda grooving, but me thinking the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

Warpaint started promptly at 8:00.. and were done soon afterward.  Before you knew it, they were playing their hit, "Elephant" but nobody seemed to know or care.  Warpaint came across like they were more into the idea of being rock stars than delivering music to the masses and I wondered how the next band would fare, when the essence of music is plucking at strings in the air?

well ... THEN UP JUMPED THE DEVIL!!

Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds took the stage and by the second song, Jubilee St. it was clear that we were in for a rare and delicious PERFORMANCE of EPIC proportions!!

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A manic, maniac genius proud of the art he created and delivering it as it deserves to be heard, Nick and his band soon whipped  themselves and the crowd into a frenzy.

The contrast between this and the previous band couldn't be more obvious, Cave and the Bad Seeds were painting a picture, creating an ATMOSPHERE, building an EDIFICE...  then SMASHING IT down.

Cave's lyrics take you down the road into dimly lit whorehouses where murder, Jesus, god and the devil all take their places in turn.

Next up.. Tupelo.  I carried the burden of Tupelo.  BAM!  Another power packed powder keg  going off in all directions in a timed demolition.. BOOM.  BOOM. BOOM.

This is why you go see Nick Cave, Patti Smith and David Bowie, they capture lightning in a bottle. Not so much musicians, as shamans casting a spell... Cave himself intoxicated in his own music... it becomes infectious, highly contagious and the NICE AND LOUD, PERFECTLY TIGHT, bubonic plague never sounded so good.

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No subject is taboo for Cave.  His songs usually involve heavy subjects: love and death; sex and murder; prostitution and pleasure; pain and redemption, affliction and addiction, the dark side,  YOU GET THE IDEA?  THIS AINT JUSTIN BEIBER. 

Go son, go down to the water
And see the women weeping there
Then go up into the mountains
The men, they are weeping too

Father, why are all the women weeping?
They are all weeping for their men
Then why are all the men there weeping?
They are weeping back at them

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While all the men and women sleep
This is a weeping song
But I won't be weeping long

Father, why are all the children weeping?
They are merely crying son
O, are they merely crying, father?
Yes, true weeping is yet to come.

His subject matter gives goosebumps.  He is taking you to the other side of the tracks.  He is thinking things through so you don't have to! ;)  (sounded good-ed)  Philosophy, experience, playing piano, singing, dancing a merry tune, moving and grooving, exorcising demons and directing his band in a fierce struggle beyond good and evil, raging against the dying of the light.

And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
A life for a life
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway there was no proof
And I'm not afraid to die.

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Only Peter Hammill comes to mind in a similar vein of the suffering poet category, the musician dealing with monumental issues.  Yet Cave seems to escape unscathed. He puts his toe in the water only to tell you it's not fit for human consumption, but you can try it anyway if you want.  Cave asks the serious questions and captures the human condition in his songs-as-stories and the books he writes.  Is there redemption?  Cave seems to get by through his love and the power of creation.

It is as though Nick Cave's reflection on the options available have strengthened his resolve to leave an indelible mark on rock n' roll history.  I was touched by his connection to humanity.  Wading through the crowd, spending time with the audience, touching hands and looking people in the eye.  Nick Cave, not an out-of-touch rock star, but a down to earth mensch, just like you and me and all the polite people of Milwaukee.  At one point, he made reference to the last time he was in this town many years ago, asking if anyone had seen the show so they could tell him what it was like  since he had no memory of it himself.  Yet thirty years later he brings a super-professional product to the stage (and will do it thirty times in the next two months) as he builds his legacy, a la Iggy Pop-the workingman musician who always gave his all, 200% every time.  Bravo!

All the clocks have stopped in Memphis now
In the Lorraine Motel, it's hot, it's hot
That's why they call it the Hot Spot
I take a room with a view
Hear a man preaching in a language that's completely new, yea
Making the hot cocks in the flophouse bleed
While the cleaning ladies sob into their mops
And a bellhop hops and bops
A shot rings out to a spiritual groove
Everybody bleeding to that Higgs Boson Blues
If I die tonight, bury me
In my favorite yellow patent leather shoes
With a mummified cat and a cone-like hat
That the caliphate forced on the Jews
Can you feel my heartbeat?
Can you feel my heartbeat?


DO YOU LOVE ME???

YES WE DO!

Joe Kotas
6/22/14 Chicago

Meurglys III

Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator at the Abbey Pub, Chicago, June 25, 2009.

VdGG MeurglysIII

Stranglers Cobra Lounge Chicago June 7, 2013

"I had a woman ship / I took her overseas / She left her hold unlocked / I had to find a dock / I was a toiler on the sea / I was a toiler on the sea."

After 20 years they returned to play the States with a few dates in New York, Detroit (cancelled) Chicago and Long Beach.   I was lucky enuf to be on their mailing list.  One of my favorite bands of all time!!!

The opening song, Toiler on the Sea, laid the foundation for the plundering to come.  Bass infused riffs emanating non-stop from J.J. Burnel's bass, hands never tiring, up and down the fret board, hammering out simple yet blistering rhythms as their Norse boat cracked the waves.

  "We came across the West sea.  We didn't have much idea 'bout the kind of climate waiting."

After four songs they stood there at the front of the stage... quiet... expectant... listening.. for requests?  The crowd could only come up with a cheer.  I didn't yell any song names, didn't have any on the tip of my tongue.  I didn't want to have to think.  I only wanted the entertainment to sweep me up in a  punk- funk frenzy that only the Stranglers can deliver.

and deliver they did....powering into what i think is their #1 song Nice N Sleazy, easily one of the best rock n' roll songs of all time.

"An angel came from outside, Had no halo, had no father, with a coat of many colours...."

They performed their staples, Peaches, Walk on By in workmanlike fashion and brought the house down with Who Wants the World?  Their hard core fans recognized this little ditty as another of their very best, songs.  Dig the unusual mix of bass, vocals, odd syncopated rhythms and keyboards!

who wants the world?

Not to mention, "Golden Brown," "Skin Deep," Get A Grip (On Yourself), "Nuclear Device" "Tank, Hanging Around," etc.  The Stranglers obviously do not rely on formula to come up with their songs. They all sound so different.  The interplay between guitar and keyboards deserves mention in that these guys are more trained musicians than those other songsmiths who depend on more rudimentary forms.  They do not consist of 3-chord rock ala Gabba Gabba Hey!

The Stranglers deserve a wider audience than what they got. They never were media darlings. The critics held a grudge against them since Burnell was known to beat up the competition including a sex pistol or two..  They seemed so much more intellectual than the Clash or Pistols with songs about concepts (No More Heroes, Skin Deep) and stories (Nice n Sleazy, the Raven), and with the addition of a maestro keyboard there was an extra element going on making them the most musically proficient band  labelled:  "punk."

 "He spoke of brothers many, wine and women, song aplenty, he began to write a chapter in his story"

Having had the pleasure of seeing a truly original band in this age of copycats, the audience was thoroughly pleased.    When all was said and done, we wiped our brows, encamped upon the new world, all pillaging behind us, les voyageurs left to explore the world with memories of Stranglers classics afresh in our minds.

"All quiet on the Eastern front."

 Obliterati

Destroyed Newspapers

On May 31, 2013 I got the idea to rip up the newspaper.

I hadn't made any art for quite a few months and I had the sudden urge to express myself.

Being a subscriber to the Chicago Tribune for some time, I thought about the hypocritical content that the newspaper feeds its customers... day in and day out...

....supposed to be dynamic, ever changing, always "new," but somehow, I got the feeling I was digesting the same, regurgitated messages.

So I ripped it up. 

It felt good.  It felt right.

I tied it up. 

I bound it up and took pictures of it. 

I got the upper hand.

I took control.

I thought it would be a one shot deal but my curator suggested a series.

It keeps working.  It feels good.  Ever changing.  It feels right....

developing intellectually, like a painting. I will do it for a year!

Take world events, the weather, the letters to the editor and rip them up. 

Shred them.  Transform them. 

Tear up the paper. 

Make your own headlines.

Joe Kotas

Chicago, 6/17/2013

1980

The Movie

"A masterpiece of color, composition music and light. The Walking Dead meets The Harlem Shake.   Thirty three (33) years ahead of its time."  NYTimes Art Critic Karl Kink, April 1, 2013

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I finally got around to transferring my super-8 film 1980, which was made in..  you guessed it... 1980! 

Here is the flyer that went with a showing at one of western NY's most beloved nightclub's:

photo credit:  the Szpakowski bros. (c) 1981

"1980"  made its debut at HALLWALLS, Buffalo, NY's premier art gallery on March 9, 1981.

HALLWALLS

Featuring unpaid actors, famous in their own right, who btw, haven't commented on it's recent premier, hand-picked by our casting director, Guy Manning.  The idea was to dance around in a cemetery to celebrate their mortal existence.  After being transported to a strange and otherworldly placement, the dancers were no longer able to find their natural rhythm.  This idea finds its roots in the philosophy of Hegel and Kant (dance.)

Any who, after 33 years in captivity..... we present.... "1980."

"Angels"

... we have heard on high....

I first met Scott Alger when he lived at the Hotel Maplewood,

a three-flat in Humboldt Park

where I rented the top floor (and roof. )

He had his own floor too.

(His brother owned the building- but that's another story.)  

(Humboldt Park urchins in front of the"Hotel Maplewood" (circa 1986)

I thought I was pretty good with kids but Scott was like the pied-friggin-piper. 

He took in whole families.  Black, white, Puerto Rican, didn't matter.  He practically adopted them.  He took care of them, fed them, housed them, befriended them, made them laugh, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera ....

...and he still does to this day.

Last week I paid Scott a visit at his beach house.  We hadn't seen each other for a couple of years and he gave me a cd of songs.  I popped it in the cd player for the ride home. 

"Song 4" on the disc hit the air and I sort of heard it.. and repeated it.  I played it again,

and again...

"Holy (expletive), I thought, this is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard."

The sights along the road with the horizontal December sun setting along  the streets of Joliet, Illinois provided a suitable backdrop.
A school bus in front of me, some geese, an empty lane, a few dozen traffic signals, the semi-bleak visuals, the solitude.... so simple and serene....recorded in high def...
... just the same as the first time I heard it myself ...
...became video and memory.

I called Scott to find out the name of the song and give him my complements.  He said that he wrote it about 24 years ago and that I am one of the few who has actually heard it!  He gave me free reign to distribute it for him and I didn't even steal the copyright...
so here it is...
after 24 years ...aging like vintage wine.

"Angels" is dedicated to those who died in Connecticut
but really was written for any child who you love and protect. 
Thanks Scott.

Joe Pumpkin

December 19, 2012

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