Soft and Music

In the booklet which accompanies the DVD release of Dream Of Life, filmmaker Steven Sebring describes the Patti Smith he came to know while making the film as essentially two different people. "She had been this really sweet, almost innocent, interesting woman," Sebring explains. "And then at Irving Plaza, she was raging, spitting music, and spewing poetry. It was fantastic." Playing as often as a visual and audio collage as it does as a documentary, Sebring's film about Patti Smith captures the essence of this iconic artist beautifully. It jumps around quite a bit between both times and places, but still manages to paint a picture that is as equal parts abstract and beautiful as the work of the icon herself. In fact, in some of the film's best moments, Sebring's unlimited access to Patti Smith provides a rare and often intimate look into the personal life of this legendary artist. We not only see Patti Smith as the iconic high priestess of punk-rock poetry — we also see her as a mother, a daughter, a wife, and sadly as a grieving widow. Patti Smith's story is already well known to fans and students of rock history. During the mid to late seventies, she made a string of four great albums, beginning with her classic debut Horses, and ending with Wave, before dropping completely out of sight for several years to move to Detroit, marry MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, and start a family. In the mid-eighties, she briefly re-emerged with the album Dream Of Life, only to disappear again for another several years. Sebring's film essentially tracks Patti Smith's life following the death of her husband in 1994. While his journey as a filmmaker begins there, it ends up lasting for the next eleven years and gains him unprecedented access to Patti Smith's life both on and offstage. By then Patti Smith has returned full time to live performance and recording — this time for good. With Sebring's unlimited access, we not only see the poet, the rock star, and the activist. We also see Patti Smith in her most private moments, which have unfortunately been overshadowed by death within the past ten years or so. In addition to losing her husband, the film reveals Patti Smith dealing with the loss of her brother, friends like artist/photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and even the keyboardist in her band. A significant amount of the film is shot at grave-sites, including those of her husband, as well as those of poets like Rimbaud and Brecht, where she makes frequent pilgrimages.

The Byrds returned to the studio during the second half of 1967 and the relationships between the members were not pretty. Michael Clarke left, Gene Clark returned, David Crosby was fired, Gene Clark left again, Jim officially became Roger McGuinn, and the resultant album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, was brilliant and became a classic 1960’s release. Rolling Stone Magazine would rank it number 171 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The original album cover featured three human Byrds and a horse. The horse was supposed to represent the departed David Crosby and at the time I thought he was lucky that they faced the horse forward. Despite all the turmoil, McGuinn and Hillman soldiered on. They would change several of the tracks that Crosby had left behind and ultimately would write or co-write nine of the eleven songs. They also hired musicians to fill in the blanks. Session musician deluxe Jim Gordon would provide some of the best drum work of the group’s career. The most important addition would be guitarist Clarence White, who had also played briefly on their last album. He would later join The Byrds as an official member and provide the perfect foil for guitarist Roger McGuinn. The album would be a compromise between McGuinn’s psychedelic tendencies and Chris Hillman’s country leanings. They would unite to present a fairly mellow affair which featured hauntingly beautiful music. Producer Gary User, a former associate of The Beach Boys, was back for a second album. He is one of the forgotten studio wizards of the 1960s. He created a number of studio bands such as The Hondells and The Superstocks, who featured layered harmonies and catchy music. His production of The Notorious Byrd Brothers was impeccable and his ability to give the vocals and the music an almost sonic quality was outstanding. His greatest achievement, however, may have been his ability to keep the recording sessions focused in the middle of all the chaos. The two non original tracks were written by the legendary team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin and continued the group’s tradition of superior cover work. “Goin’ Back” featured Roger McGuinns legendary 12 string guitar plus the vocal phrasing gave the lyrics new life and meaning which enabled the song to escape its pop foundation and become a memorable folk-rock tune. “Wasn’t Born To Follow” would feature one of the best vocals of McGuinn’s career. The album contains a number of other delights. “Draft Morning” is a gentle but effective anti-war song that remains a social commentary about the late sixties. “Change Is Now” is highlighted by Chris Hillman’s bass beat and gorgeous harmonies on the chorus. “Old John Robertson” is the best of the country songs and looks ahead to the coming of Gram Parsons. The final two tracks are a last hurrah for the pure psychedelic Byrds. “Dolphin's Smile” is David Crosby’s final brilliant gasp as a member of the group. “Space Odyssey” was written with the Stanley Kubrick movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in mind. While it was not used in the film it remains a unique psychedelic relic of the era. The Notorious Byrd Brothers has a timeless quality about it and is one of the better, if not the best release, in their outstanding catalogue of work. It is a stunning album that was meant to be listened too with head phones firmly in place.

Kreator are one of the Big Three of German thrash metal. Alongside Sodom and Destruction they've flown the flag high ever since forming way back in 1982. Their early demos saw them getting signed by legendary genre label Noise, and under the stewardship of founder member Mille Petrozza, they've been pounding away ever since. Their début album Endless Pain came out in 1985 and was an instant hit with metalheads, and it's one of the albums that is constantly hailed as a major influence by subsequent generations of bands. The follow-up, 1986's Pleasure To Kill, is even better. Kreator broke all the speed limits as they thrashed their way through classic after classic, with "Flag Of Hate" hailed as a metal anthem. Their final indie album of the eighties, Terrible Certainty continued their momentum and saw the major labels sniffing round, with Epic Records signing them for the LA recorded Extreme Aggression, complete with a big name producer in Randy Burns, MTV videos and US tours. However, as with many metal bands, signing to a major saw the first cracks in the Kreator story. With a new guitarist in tow, "Coma Of Souls" saw the critics knives sharpening. In response, Kreator threw their toys out of the pram as they responded with a series of experimental releases that saw them dipping their toes into industrial metal, goth rock, and the just plain weird, on albums like Renewal and Endorama. There were more line up changes, leaving vocalist / guitarist Petrozza as the sole original band member, and it seemed as though there days were numbered as Epic dropped them, and they headed back to indie land. But then the 21st century arrived, along with a new guitarist, Sami Yli-Sirniö, and suddenly Kreator returned. Violent Revolution was a fabulous return to form and to their roots, and the band saw their profile raised, and a new generation of fans arrived. A live album and a new studio release, Enemy Of God were also well received, but with four years passing without any new material, is there any gas left in Kreators tank?

Bell X1 lead singer Paul Noonan makes the following lyrical demands on upcoming release Blue Lights on the Runway: (1) he wants to make a new world or word order, and he wants to make it rhyme (2) he wants George to tell him about those rabbits (3) he wants to be a better band and possibly a better man (though Eddie Vedder called this one first) and (4) he wants to shoot fire from his hand like some kind of human fire-flower. Oddly enough, if taken literally, his third demand is the one that seems most irrational here and more than a little self-depreciating. We may be nubes to the Bellies’ brand of Brian Eno-infused, occasionally electronic, Euro-pop and Noonan may be trying to kick some sort of life-claustrophobia via the demand in question (see: “A Better Band”), but these Irish men have already pretty much stirred our souls with that great big stick of theirs, which kind of looks like an ore (see: “The Great Defector”). Meaning it’s difficult to imagine this band better. Of course, these fangirls’ hearts have always been hard-wired for any music that feeds their “where did all the good bands go?!” bitchin’ (so there’s no need to start cutting their red and blue wires. They need those. See: “How Your Heart is Wired”). What this means is that Bell X1 channels the best of the Talking Heads, James and Ireland’s original big-hitters, U2 (they were even called Ireland’s best band by Vanity Fair, though we doubt anyone’s bothered to run this by Bono), and that, we really don’t know how to kick the “heady glow” of this bloody-fine discovery. But we do know it makes for a good buzz, and, if we keep listening, Blue Lights and Bell X1 will keep feeding that above-mentioned need (and likely, yours too, once the words playing on your stereo start to swim). That’s the beauty of “time’s great elixir.” At times comical, asking that mysterious man named George about those equally mysterious rabbits, and at other times dramatically dark, waxing worrisome on this mad, mad world, but always brainy, the band’s lyrical tastes are seemingly reflective of the Psychedelic Furs (sorry, an obvious pun about those bunny references). But, seriously, the Bellies’ lyrical tastes are highly reflective of their affinity for evolution; they even played bar mitzvahs and wedding parties before gaining popularity on the telly and touring with such artists as Bon Jovi and the late Elliott Smith (which resulted in a “big hair, small music identity crisis,” as the band’s bio reports).

As Jon Flanders explains early on in his enjoyable book, <i>RESTful .NET</i>, Representational State Transfer (REST) is a set of guidelines on how to architect your web applications. Because it is tightly aligned with HTTP, architectures that follow the principles of REST are able to hook into a number of benefits that come built into the technologies that surround the web. Flanders delves into REST briefly, but he does it well enough that you understand its value even if you haven't consumed the groundbreaking book RESTful Web Services. The transition to programming REST using .NET is just as nicely handled. Windows Communication Foundation is a sprawling technology precisely because it is a model that covers a wide variety of programming paradigms (it supports a multitude of protocols like messaging, HTTP, SOAP, etc). There is a quick tutorial on implementing HTTP services using WCF - which serves to remind us that WCF isn't only tightly coupled to SOAP. The rest of the book is divided up into chapters that zero in on specific implementation using WCF: Read-only services, Read/Write services, RESTful services and Feeds. Flanders also covers both server side implementation and client-side consumption of the services. There is coverage of Ajax and Silverlight clients and a short chapter on using WCF Workflow to deliver the REST services. RESTful .NET's biggest strength is that it is concise, clear and lean. It zeroes in on the essentials and provides very lean tutorials. To that point, you need the basics of HTTP, SOAP, WCF, XML, C# and (briefly) ASP in place to fully appreciate the book. The most valuable chapter for me was the one in which Flanders covers programming feeds. But there is enough diversity in terms of types of constructs implemented, that you'll find something of value here. It is highly recommended if you are a Windows Web programmer and have a growing interest in REST.