Finally . . an Online Home for The Rub

Please also have a look at our band's recently launched site at http://rubtheband.com/

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Hope you like it.

Me and Julio

What can I say? My very first real musical remembrances are from the early 1970's, and this one stands out from many of the rest. Pretty sure that this song was popular at about the same time the Watergate hearings were interrupting my loyal viewership of things like Sesame Street and Grape Ape/Tom and Jerry Hour. Don't quote me on that though. This songs makes me want to climb in the 'way back' of the station wagon and make faces at the drivers behind us.

Forgive me for the liberties taken with the harmonies.

Loving Cup

Pound for pound, minute for minute, track for track, I think Exile on Main Street is my favorite album of all time. From the opening riff of Rocks Off to the final wails of Soul Survivor it's just packed with energy and terrific songs.

Of course it lacks the polish of a Sgt. Pepper's or the unmitigated excitement that you get when you listen to a 'new' band's debut album ( eg - Arctic Monkeys, etc).

As a kid, I was blown away by Sgt. Pepper's with 'how did they do that?' amazement.

With the Arctic Monkey's debut for instance, the sheer 'how good are these kids? and what will they do next?' excitement was immeasurable.

But this. This is a record by a mature band, recorded in relatively low fidelity that straight out rocks. The happiness with which it appears the band was playing is contagious. This is a monster band playing at the absolute height of their powers, and you can almost sense the fact that the entire extended band was living together and recording this at the oddest of hours. There are a ton of moments left in this album that would have been recut by other bands in persuit absolute perfection. And that's why it works. This record wasn't about the persuing the most immaculate production (ala, say Dark Side of the Moon). The stones were never really about that. This record seems to have been about capturing the essence of these songs with the knowledge that with each incremental take there would be an erosion of energy. Repetition would drain the performances of spontaneity. You leave some of the rough bits in for the greater good - the not quite quantifiable energy and aura.

Back in the day, my roommates and I would sit around listening to CDs and generally being too lazy to get up and switch songs or discs too often. I've never really thought about it too much, but I guess this was either before remote controls were standard, or more likely, because ours was broken. Anyway, this was the CD that beyond all others allowed us to be as lazy as possible. You put this one on, and you were good for at least two hours. That's tough to find in a CD that's not some sort of 20 year retrospective greatest hits nonsense.

It's an original, and there's really nothing else like it that I can immediately think of. This record (to me at least) lives somewhere in between a studio and a live recording. You know it's not a concert recording, but you can imagine everyone in the band playing / clapping etc along together. There's not much studio trickery and everything is infinitely reproducible. To me, this will always be the Stones at their finest.

Bell Bottom Blues

Okay, so here goes. Thought I'd resolved to be better about this, but spare time seems to be at a premium these days. Have a few songs in the pipeline that I could probably record, so this seems like as good a time as any to get started again.

Here's a song that (again) just seems to remind me of my early childhood whenever I hear it. I really only reflect on it as one of the songs I used to hear sitting in the very back of my parents station wagon - seemingly on a sweltering Jersey Summer day. The "way back" we used to call it. Kids can be very literal, I guess.

Can you even let kids ride back there anymore without another driver immediately calling Child Protective Services via cell phone? For that matter does anyone even drive station wagons anymore? I guess those Volvo and Subaru wagons would classify, but wagons should really have that fake wood paneling to count in my book.

Regardless, when you're 7 you don't really think of things like "wow, that's two of the greatest guitarists who've ever lived playing in the same band" or "gee, every song by these guys is really sad and seems to be about the same girl". One reflects upon things like this only after . . . well, I don't know what. A lot of years, I guess.

Anyway, in my haste to actually do something, I'll post this. Two takes and it sounds like it. Too lazy to record anymore takes - gotta ease back in slow. 45 minutes start to finish. phew.

Karma Police

Karma Police -
Click Title To Play.

To me, these guys are head and shoulders above any other band that's come out since Nirvana. I was way behind the times in terms of hearing them, but sometime in 2001 or so a co-worker turned me on to OK Computer and I was instantly blown away. I love the intertwining of the ambient music with rock melodies and beats, which sort of reminds me of some of the catchier stuff that Brian Eno did with Bowie on the Berlin albums. I'm really not much for Electronica as a genre, so I'm kind of partial to the earlier Radiohead albums. Probably cause I'm old.

And even though these guys are usually so serious, this songs is actually pretty funny. Yeah, there's still the whole alienation undertone, but in general this is pretty lighthearted for a Radiohead song.

I had serious doubts about trying to record one of their songs, but on the whole, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes - Click Title To Play

The sequel to Space Oddity, I'm still incredulous that people debate whether there are allusions to drug use in both of these songs. To me, it's pretty clear. But maybe it's just me.

Although, to support my point I would use as exhibit A the video for the song which was completely bizzare. He's dressed as a clown and there's basically no focus whatsoever on the music. He's just kind of wandering around with a cast of equally crazy looking lunatics. I once heard someone say that the video is a reference to Hiroshima, but I never really saw that aspect.

I don't know, I seem to remember hearing this song all the time when it came out. My wife on the other hand, says she's never heard it. I still love her anyway though, in spite of her musical flaws. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, when we moved in together and merged CD collections her contributions consisted mainly of movie soundtracks and Indigo Girls albums. Funny story about her coming home from an Indigo Girls show at Madison Square Garden: She went with her college roommate and afterwards showed up at my apartment, and then proceeded to pass out using a turkey sandwich as a pillow. There's more to it, but let's just leave it at that.

Hallelujah

I never really knew much about Jeff Buckley. I still don't know a lot. One thing that I do know is that he used to play quite often at Montana Studios in Manhattan and was very close to some of the engineers there. Our band plays every week in the same room at Montana that Jeff used to play in before he passed away. I didn't know that at the time that I recorded this, I just thought it was a beautiful song. I know he didn't write it, but his interpretation is incredible and inspiring. I played this one night during a break at rehearsal and the guys at Montana really seemed to like it.