Butch Walker: Top Shelf--of course!

Always SO cool to see Butch's name in print/on the web/really, anywhere!  Mentioned in Rolling Stone recently in the context of his work with the singer from Sugarland: 

For the new album, Nettles wrote songs on her own, or collaborated with top-shelf songwriters like Sara Bareilles and Butch Walker.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sugarland-singer-jennifer-nettles-teams-with-rick-rubin-for-solo-debut-20130517#ixzz2TZKJAW4S

Whoa!  "Top-shelf" from the self-proclaimed leaders in internet music news.  Bibi is so impressed!

Although, the story would have been vastly improved if a picture of Butch would have been included.  Just saying.  Something like this one: 

That good ol' Butch Walker Ameliorative Effect--I feel better already!

Love ya, Butch!  AND, congrats on the RS mention!  You deserve even more!

Butch Walker's Upcoming Shows in Chicago

Every Christmas season, Bibi swears she will NOT succumb to those sentimental Christmas movies one more time and yep, here she is just crying while most of Bedford Falls fills up George  Bailey's house, adding their donations to the basket of money, start singing carols, miraculously his hero brother shows up and everyone toasts to the richest man in town.  Get it?--George is engulfed by so many friends, who love him--the richest man in town and everyone realizes how lucky they are to be alive, including the viewers who watch this every year.  Gets Bibi every time.  (tiny litle sniff here)

So, hmmm....where has Bibi been?  During the Thanksgivng break, LOTS of big blog about action to be taken on behalf of Butch, spreading the word about his shows in Chicago . . . and then?  Loss of nerve, loss of focus, just plain loss of words?  No, actually Bibi was a bit under the weather after a regrettable encounter with leftovers.  But, during her few coherent, waking moments, she spent a lot of time thinking about the Butch review requests to the NYTimes, the NYorker and Rolling Stone.  In fact, the NYTimes version is just about done.  It's concise, makes cogent points that any subscriber to the Times would make, it's affable, reasonable with a dash of fan fervor mixed in; looking good.

Guess we can credit The Butch Walker Ameriorative Effect for the recovery Bibi made over the week, although it would have worked faster if Bibi had been able to even make the effort to listen to music.  After what remained of the work week was finished, had to run the errands, get a few Christmas decorations to fit in with this year's color scheme, so cranked up The Spade.  MAN...WHAT A RECORD!!! 


Opens with a great, crunchy guitar riff, the drums jump in and PUNCH IT Chewy!, we're into Bodegas and Blood for real.  Damn, it's good...no, IT'S GREAT!!!  Just the beginning, too.  The whole album is an unbelievable, pounding powerhouse of songs.  One after the other:  Every Single Body Else, Summer of ‘89, Sweethearts, Day Drunk, Synthesizers, Dublin Crow, Closest Thing To You I’m Gonna Find, Bullet Belt, Suckerpunch--all terrific, knockout examples of what Butch does so well--write, collaborate, sing, play guitars and banjolin in a fucking fantastic way that draws you kicking and screaming (in a rocking live-show way) into a totally energizing, full out immersion listening experience.  I've tried to pick a fave cut.  Got it down to Bodegas, Summer of '89, Sweethearts, Synthesizers, Closest Thing, Suckerpunch--you see the problem.  How can so many be THE favorite?  I listen to this cd a lot and it continues to please.  No fast forward, no skipping songs, just straight through every time I get in the car.  Don't play it at work--the f and s words, you know.  Truly, truly a great album, world!

FYI:  Bibi is not an iPod person.  It's not just the ears; don't really get that whole shut out the ambient noise thing.  Tried, but really, don't I need to hear what's going on in my surroundings at all times?  Sure, I'm in boring places as much as the next cat, but Bibi has found that a very good rule to live by is:  alert is better than not.  Crossing the street, waiting at a ___'s appointment, driving long distances, seems like being able to hear is better than not.  Also, have never been able to crank up the volume on an iPod like I can in the car.  Note to anyone thinking about buying a Miata:  the speakers are very good and if you have to drive places, there is NOTHING so satisfying as the pleasure of the top down with the music blasting while you're speeding down the highway.  Yep, your hair is a fucking mess, but you can always put on a ski cap and maybe a vest, and just try kinda hard to make it not look like ya tried at all.

OK, soldiering on with the review requests--want to send them out this week.  Will let you know!

And just because, here's a pic of Butch during the filming of the video for Summer of '89 with character actor Seymour Cassel. 

Adorable!

PR for Butch Walker

So, who does this for Butch?  Is the job currently unfilled?  Shouldn't there be frequent, or going with the absence makes them scream for more theory, even infrequent mentions of Butch in the media?  He played at the Los Angeles Petty Fest recently which gives Bibi a case in point:  where is the follow-up buzz about his  performance?  He KILLED with his version of Breakdown on the first night. 

Butch says: It's alright if you love me, it's alright if you don't...

                                                                      this pic is from the second night of Petty Fest West

Let's be clear on this:  Bibi would strongly vote (4 paws worth) against Butch appearing during half time at football games.    Seems that Lenny Kravitz's management is utilizing the any publicity is good publicity model to re-energize his career.  hmmmmm.  However, there must be some middle ground where knowledgeably timed press releases and/or noteworthy appearances, like Petty Fest, could raise awareness without being a sell-out junket for Butch, right?  This leads to discussion of why Butch Walker isn't better known and appreciated. Have lots to say about that, but that's a different post, or two. 

As devoted readers, you know Bibi intends to check with the NY Times and the NYorker about their plans to review Butch's upcoming shows in Chicago.  Oh, right, also something to Rolling Stone.  Content and stylistic questions arise:  use of the impersonal voice, signaling not only decorum and reason, but good taste?  Or, go with the naturalistic, giddy, total fan tone?  As a subscriber to both pubs, imply exasperation that this hasn't happened for Butch already?   (Maybe their people have already informed Butch they will be catching the shows?)  There's really no way to say to the NYT or the NYer, "Who does Butch Walker have to ---- to get attention from your organization?"  Maybe you could say it to RS, but why give those guys the satisfaction?  Bibi is saying this from a fan perspective, it's not what Butch would say--ever--since we all know Butch won't sell out--an issue germane to the point brought up in the last paragraph.

Have to craft a concise, coherent request, emphasizing increased readership satisfaction that such a review  would engender for the NYT and the NYer, both of which continue to seek ways to connect with a younger base.  (whoa, Bibi, MBA!) Need an engaging opening, finish with a flourish, of course.  Keep forgetting that I have to send something suitable to Rolling Stone, too.  Given their past unfathomably dismissive treatment of Butch, that will be a tough one.  Same music mag that dismissed AC/DC, right?  Anyway, back on point...include pictures?  Links to live performances?  Don't want that old Salieri criticism (something like):  Ah, Mozart, you are passionate but you do not convince.

Maybe Bibi hasn't mentioned a small pr effort she's been working lately:  made some business cards with Butch's picture, webpage and link for Episode 54 of Live From Daryl's House.  I leave them at just about every store or public place I go.  Today, at the Clear Lake Half-Price Books found the Letters cd--second time I've found a cd by Butch at this location!--and as I was paying, I told the guy about Butch and gave him one of the cards.  He said he'd check Butch out on the web.  Grass roots, I know, but presidential elections have been won using this angle.  It could help in raising Butch Walker awareness, too.

Butch Walker Story for the New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone

Bibi was wondering if any of the influential print/online news sources will be reviewing Butch's shows in Chicago.  Using Kevin's advice from Home Alone: don't be afraid of the basement, just check it out.  (That's what Bibi heard.) So, I plan to email the New York Times,  the New Yorker and Rolling Stone.  Not that I read RS with any regularity, but I do read the other two all the time.  AND, Rolling Stone seriously owes Butch after that introduction at Petty Fest a week or so ago.  Watch that flub here:

  Butch at Petty Fest, Break Down 

Can almost forget the mis-introduction.  Butch delivers a sizzling version of Break Down, like the pro he is!  Again!




It may be a long shot, but due diligence on the part of an avowed Butch Walker fan is the way I look at it.  They might not know that Butch will be performing in Chicago in December and if I don't say something, they could miss out on an article their readers would otherwise clamor for, right?   Butch has merited at least mentions by all three in the past, so it's not like he's an unknown entity to them.  He's talented, personable, a great interview, a notable crowd draw for boisterously memorable shows,  and the holiday season needs some non-holiday articles to get us into the new year.  Win, win, win, win all the way around.

Will begin work on the email tonight; has to be truly readable and worth following up.  Have some time before December 30, but want to give them some lead time and you know how it goes sometimes. 

Fingers crossed!

Butch Walker's Birthday at Petty Fest in LA and lessons in how to drink wisely

Looks like an excellent time was had by all at Petty Fest--and why not?   You knew the music was going to be great: Tom Petty's stuff is the epitome of classic rock n roll, resonating for so many of us, no matter the background or age, with its far-ranging emotions and experiences set in a rocking, must-enjoy again and again blend, guitar band best, often magical in its intensity and effect.  When we saw him back in the early '90s, or maybe that was the really late '80s--ah, les neiges d'antan, right?--what a show it was!  Still have the t shirt, somewhere.  The stars of Petty Fest, including the surprize guests, were some of the best of the best musicians.  Maybe some desperate wannabes were there, too.  No names and no judgment here. (Can't stop you from checking out YouTube on your own, though.) 

Of course, Butch was the best one: kick-ass rocker talent and professionalism on full-out display, total class act.  If I had been there, would I have left after he played? 

First night, Butch did Breakdown--excellent, ever so delightfully sinister version.  He shaded it with just a soupcon of bitter experience and lots of self-assured confidence.  Goes down so good n tantalizingly tasty!  
Butch Hancock, er Walker, Tom Petty's Breakdown,

Bibi wonders, though, what was the person filming this thinking?  Me, I would focus on Butch Walker--he's the featured musician, he's singing lead, he's playing the rock star role completely--yet, the camera meanders around, filming the other musicians, Butch is often just out of camera range or kind of fuzzy.  Why? Anyway, here's a still of the stage while Butch is playing:  Butch at Pettyfest 2012)

and an even better photo:

Butch (looked and) sounded fantastic on his birthday AND his hair was perfect!  Loved the whole look!  (Bibi never claimed to be profound.) He took being introduced by the wrong name like a man, shrugged it off with a jab at Rolling Stone.  (The guy doing the introductions is an editor/writer at RS.)   Cool for Butch!  Jameson's was one of the event sponsors and understand there was a lot of free range drinking going on, so some flubs were to be expected. 

I know when I unexpectedly went out to a wine tasting on Thursday--what? Bibi went drinking on a school night?!?!  Bibi doesn't EVEN drink--then we moved on to not one, but two more bars, there were probably many mots inattendus sprinkled in the lively converations that, hopefully, promptly wafted into the alcohol-induced ether.  Probably, each of the people I was with (M, J, S, and wow! can't even remember the other guy's name) just remembers a quite enjoyable evening.  No hangover either!  So, Bibi 's recommendation:  if you're going to drink when you have to go to work the next morning, drink sparingly of the wine, eat as many of the exotic hors d'oervres as you can nonchalantly quaff (a nod to Butch's sage advice:  ‘Cause we’re hotter when we don’t give a damn) and then switch to good, mid-level Champagne for the rest of the evening.  End the evening with a few bites of food, take a shower and go to bed.  Worked for me.

Haven't seen a video of the second night of Petty Fest, when Butch played "Even the Losers", but heard he brought the house down.  No less than a Butch Walker aficionada would expect.  Will keep checking YouTube and report later.

Today's tweets from Butch signal a move from LA to Georgia (should watch the stock market for the butterfly effect from this announcement) and a renewed sense of purpose in terms of new material for an album.  Whatever it takes, Butch!  The fans are solidly behind you on this and are fervently awaiting the songs AND the tour!

High Voltage--the first, still so good

For awhile now, my car cd selection has been High Voltage only, over and deliriously over again. When I bought it in mid-December in those early days of my AC/DC infatuation, it was my number three choice after Highway to Hell and of course, Back in Black. Once I heard it, though, I kept coming back to it, cranked up to eleven, listening all the way through each time, eventually wondering why, why, and how Rolling Stone could label it “a new low in rock n roll.” Did that reviewer even listen to any of the tracks on the album? Or, is the evidence all too convincing? Rolling Stone has been an irrelevant rag ever since the mid 70’s. If rock n roll was ever about feeling good and saying it really loud, look no further than High Voltage. Far from a low, it’s a raucously joyous high of a ride through rock dreams and girl fantasies by guys that clearly won some, maybe lost quite a few, but those they won were memorable, possibly even for all parties involved.

Leave aside It’s a Long Way to the Top and The Jack—sure, go ahead try to ignore them—and focus on only five of the cuts: Rock n Roll Singer, Live Wire, Can I Sit Next to You Girl, TNT, and High Voltage (I’ll obsess over Little Lover another time, okay?) and you’ve got a straight on, kick ass, rock n roll set that—raw and ready--crashes the house down. We’re willing captives to a bunch of cocky, rowdy, rock band guys who, in their first album, no less, already know: “I got the devil in my blood, Tellin' me what to do (and I'm all ears). Gonna be a rock 'n' roll singer, gonna be a rock 'n' roll star.” They make no promises they can’t keep: “send you to heaven, take you to hell, I ain’t fooling, can’t you tell?” and play their hearts out night after night, no doubts in their collective mind that they are going to make it as rock stars and/or with all the girls they meet (on their rocking highway to hell): ‘cause I’m TNT, I’m dynamite. When Bon yells “stick this in your fuse box” and Angus lets it rip with his killer guitar solo, well, who can even think straight, much less question their creds? By that point, we desperately want to be or be with these guys--“hotter than a rollin’ dice. Wilder than a drunken fight.”

Moving on to a dive-y bar with a live band, admit it, who hasn’t wanted this exhilarating question on a Saturday night? “Can I sit next to you, girl?” Especially if it’s coming from the no name, kinda cute, wannabe rocker up there on the stage? If he had the guts to ask, could she say no? As listeners, we're outsiders getting an unforgettable and irresistable feel for the rock band life highs and lows, and we’re included as a necessary element of the total experience--so awesome! The crowning jewel among these rubies and pearls of rock gemstones is High Voltage. AC/DC is rarely given credit for lyrical styling, but High Voltage is a superb example of Bon Scott’s diamond in the rough, spot on writing gift. The cool hook is setting the song as a series of questions: from family, or (possibly) a girlfriend’s father, and maybe, one day, an interviewer: why I grow my hair, why I’m in a band, why I like to sing, why I like to play. Only one answer, one reason: the band does it for HIGH VOLTAGE ROCK AND ROLL!!! When Bon screams: wine, women and song, jeez, all the rock elements—words, drums, guitars--come together and the power the music gives the band washes over us mere mortals as we’re swept up in AC/DC’s pulsating rhytm and rush into complete abandon to the moment.

The free for all feel of the seamless collaboration between words and music so evocatively conjures up the band's--and our--rock n roll dreams and adventures, real or only wished-for, that today when we listen, we’re inexorably sucked into a dizzy, wild tumble of right here, right now lyrics with no subtle meanings to confuse or distract us, scorching, pure guts guitar breaks exquisitely laid over heart pounding drums and aggressively hard as a rock bass and rhythm guitars. Just give yourself up to the sweaty, driving, good-time energy and love it, love it, love it.

Whew…anybody for a cigarette? Before listening to High Voltage again…cranked up to eleven….