Down in the Hole- The Seedy Underworld Drama of The Wire

I've been meaning to get to HBO's epic The Wire for a while now. A crime procedural story with season-long arcs and powerful characterization, this gritty and realistic drama is surely deserving of the title of one of the best damn shows ever to grace television. But what, you may ask, makes it so great?

The characters, silly people. (Oh. I guess I am the silly one for answering my own question. Tee hee.)

A few of my favorites...

Jimmy McNulty- detective, alkie
Played by- Dominic West

Classic anti-hero Jimmy McNulty is the hard-drinking Irish homicide cop whose pride is outstripped only by his disdain for authority. Fiercely intelligent, outspoken, brash, and not a little self-destructive, his tragic flaw is that the same qualities that feed his worst character failings (pride and intellectual vanity, rebelliousness, and stubbornness) are those that enable him to be a truly great police officer. In between bouts of drinking and one-night stands, he chases down Baltimore's drug kingpins with a vengeance. The worst irony? He doesn't do it for the love of the job, nor out of a sense of justice, or to help the community. No, he does it because he needs to win. He needs to be smarter than the guy he's chasing. In the end, he does the right things for the wrong reason, to feed his own ego. And that, combined with his 'lovable fuckup' charm, may make him a terrible person, but it also makes him a cop worth rooting for.

Lester Freamon- detective, tiny furniture maker
Played by- Clarke Peters

The ultimate smooth operator, 'Cool Lester Smooth' Freamon is the brains behind Baltimore's Major Crimes Unit. Benched in the pawn shop unit (for a length of time he reminds everyone is specifically thirteen years and four months) for keeping to his principles, Lester is dedicated to the case above all else. He is incredibly talented at putting connections and clues together; he's 'natural police' in the parlance of the show, though at first glance he appears to be little more than an eccentric (and useless) senior detective who spends his time making miniature armoires. He establishes himself as a supremely tenacious detective by tracking down a photo of a suspect through only an offhand comment about the suspect's amateur boxing days. He soon begins pulling the strings behind the titular wiretap by cataloging phone exchanges and pursuing financial records, serving as the driving force behind the Major Crimes Unit's best moves.

What would a great series be without great villains, though? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

Stringer Bell- underworld mastermind, semi-legit businessman
Played by- Idris Elba

Played with a great American accent by British-born Idris Elba, Stringer Bell is the Freamon for the other side- a drug lord who is cold, calculating, intelligent, methodical, and, though technically serving under kingpin Avon Barksdale, is the true leader of the Barksdale clan in the eyes of many. The brains to Avon's brawn, he aces Economics tests and buddies up to politicians by day and directs thugs and dealers by night. He holds every card in the deck, constantly plotting, evading capture and ruthlessly putting down the enemies of the Barksdale drug organization. McNulty is his sworn enemy for a reason; he just might be the one criminal who is his equal in terms of intellect and ability. Bravo, sir, bravo.

Omar Little- stick-up man, homosexualist
Played by- Michael K. Williams

Omar is the charming anti-hero that sticks up drug dealers for a living. Whether he's lying in court, pointing a shotgun in someone's face, or just whistling a chilling 'Farmer in the Dell', he does it with panache. Panache, dammit. How can you not love him? He's polite, endearing, witty, professional, and most of all principled. His sights never fall on civilians, he rarely if ever curses, he takes his grandmama to church, fer Chrissakes! He's just so darn good at being good that it's almost weird to see him shoot a man in the face. But, we accept this fact because, as he might say, 'the game is the game'. And when you're in 'the game', you lose your right to not get face-shot by Omar.

Roland Pryzbylewski- detective, general fuckup
Played by- Jim True-Frost

Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski is our resident idiot with a heart of gold. His boyish naivete and initial ineptitude for police work seem to paint him as a terminal doofus. However, when he broke a telephone code no one else could figure out in the first season, I coined the term 'pulling a Prez' for the moment a character comes into the fold from the wastes of loser-land. Prez goes from a hotheaded and bungling street cop who can't get fired because of family connections to a hound for the paper trail. His instincts for tracking assets and finding patterns makes him a natural Freamon understudy. Later, he becomes a caring and effective middle school teacher, which of course earns him extra awesome points. (Much respect to educators, y'all.)

Part one's finished youse guys. Stay tuned for more.

The Cutting Edge- The Music of Sheffield's Comsat Angels

Many bands follow a predictable career path- promising early singles after toiling in obscurity, an auspicious debut, and from there you might get a few gems, then the masterpiece, then the decline into mediocrity.

Not so with the Comsats. Though they had their share of major label troubles, they maintained a stable lineup all throughout their career up until their final album, and their discography ranges from the masterful (Waiting For A Miracle, Sleep No More) to the horrendous (Fire On The Moon, Land) in the opinion of both the fans and the band. Their penultimate album, My Mind's Eye, is even considered their best by some. (I'm a fan of Sleep No More m'self.)

They also reunited in 2008 for a pair of shows with the original line-up in the fashion of other post-punk luminaries such as Wire, Gang of Four, Dinosaur Jr, and of course our heroes in Burma.

Bass guitarist Kevin Bacon, guitarist Stephen Fellows, keyboardist Andy Peake, and drummer Mik Glaisher at Sheffield Academy in 2008

But aside from their career trajectory, it's their skillful playing and considerable mastery of mood and texture that makes them such an enduring act.

Their music can usually be called loosely post-punk, after all they shared a stage with Pere Ubu, but though the unremitting darkness so often identified with their style runs deep in the work, the Comsats also never forsake melody for drama, and they never forget to be a rock band, not just some flimsy 'art' band.

Have a listen to the mutated, lurching bass lines and deeply pounding drums from a personal favorite of mine, The Eye Dance. Dig that bending and shimmering guitar and keyboard interplay.



Another fave from Sleep No More is the original album closer, the haunting and emotionally blasted Our Secret. A great anthem for atheists, alongside XTC's Dear God. Just take a listen and dig the lyrics. "One world and one turn, one world only, that's the secret... we will never give it up."



Throughout the song, Stephen Fellows contorts and warps this skeletal, zapping riff that feels like it has more notes than it really does. It's a great effect, using variations on the timing of the nearly screaming riff to communicate the desolate emotional landscape of the song. A steady cyclical bassline keeps time while drums snap off a walloping beat. During the chorus, the tension resolves in the two cymbal crashes during the first half of the lyric. After the second chorus, as the guitar intensifies and skips around, the drums rise up powerfully to smash into the last chorus. What a tune.

Another song that (nearly) speaks for itself is the debut's Real Story, about a man with delusions about the nature of reality. Anchored by a fantastic highly funky, jabbing bassline, the song rides on a rolling drumbeat and effected vocals through a mocking chorus. The ending is a real highlight, though too short- the guitar riffs, though simple, are just perfect in matching the mood.



Keep in mind that these are all from early albums; later albums would produce plenty of classic tunes, but few later works had the conceptual purity and unrelenting mood as Sleep No More.

In their later years, after a string of failure albums in terms of both sales and critical opinion, the Comsats set out to record what would be their second-to-last album, My Mind's Eye. The result was quite the turnaround from the tepid albums preceding it- the production no longer dated, Fellows' voice in its finest shape yet, the drums untreated by cheesy effects, the keyboards used for mood and texture to let the guitar take full responsibility of the melody and direction of a song. The album reconnected the band with their fanbase and is actually a personal favorite of Fellows; he's proudest of My Mind's Eye as his band's best work.

It's no wonder, with songs like Field of Tall Flowers.



That chorus gets me every time. His voice, the accompaniment of strings, that guitar line. Bacon's bass work is in fine form throughout the album as well, powerful and full-bodied as it was on their best early releases.

Though the band produced one more album after 1992, 1995's the Glamour, it was not as well-received, owing in part to the two new band members' desire for a more traditional rock style.

That said, some of their work is still in print, and it's not completely unlikely we may see more shows from them in the future, seeing how well their reunion shows were appraised.

Buy from iTunes or Amazon, or snoop other blogs if you like. Just don't forget to pay for something if you like it.

Mission of Burma at the Paradise, January 15th and 16th

I ventured to Boston over the weekend of January 15th and 16th, and, having returned from two excellent Mission of Burma concerts, I shall proceed to inform you all of the epic win I witnessed.
Without going into too much about the flight and accommodations, let's just say things went smoothly and were basically not fucked up in the slightest.

My strategy was to position myself quite close to the left side of the stage the first night (Clint's side), then the right side the next night (Roger's side). The bass the first night tore my head off- I don't think I had any idea what loud really was until I saw these guys. They were full of intensity and energy, and you could feel the mutual emotional bond between band and crowd- we both loved every second of the show. The second night I got a clue and took some earplugs (thank you Roger!) and found if I took them out just a tiny bit I could hear everything but the cymbal hiss and guitar screech at the top of the mix, so I was all good.

First night's setlist:

1. The Setup
2. 1,2,3 Partyy!
3. Possession
4. Blunder
5. Peking Spring (holyshityesfuckgoody)
6. 13
7. 2wice
8. Absent Mind
9. Here It Comes
10. SSL 83
11. Einstein's Day
12. Hi-Fi (a new track, hot off the press)
13. Good Cheer
14. 1001 Pleasant Dreams
15. That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
16. Red
17. Encore- a cover of the Yardbirds' Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
18. That's When I Reach For My Revolver
19. Learn How

Opening band the Konks brought good energy, and their unorthodox setup went over well. Their lead singer plays drums standing up with just a tom and a snare drum. However, their songs ran a little long without enough variation. All in all, they were okay.

The Setup was a superb opener, featuring hyperfast bass runs and a great dueling guitar-tape section. Einstein's Day contained one of Roger's best solos I've yet heard, the only thing I can think of offhand that tops it is the next night's Donna Sumeria. Everyone was thrilled at the inclusion of Peking Spring and Revolver, but even newer tracks were heartily appreciated by the rather eclectic mix of folks in the crowd. Ages ranged from young whelps like myself all the way up to middle age and beyond.

Second night's setlist:

1. Devotion
2. Possession
3. Good Cheer
4. 2wice
5. Hi-Fi (went much better this night, seemed like it was still being written)
6. Trem Two
7. Spider's Web
8. Hunt Again
9. One Day We Will Live There (band flubbed the ending, but they managed to shrug it off)
10. SSL 83
11. After The Rain
12. Innermost
13. Dumbells (a rare treat, dating back to the never-recorded Vs. follow-up)
14. 1,2,3 Partyy!
15. This Is Not A Photograph
16. Nancy Reagan's Head
17. Encore1- 1001 Pleasant Dreams
18. Academy Fight Song (stood in for Revolver as the 'Big Hit' for the night)
19. The Ballad of Johnny Burma
20. Encore 2- Donna Sumeria (fan-fuckin'-tastic solo, great bass riffs)
21. That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate

The opener for this night, Bunnies, were hardcore weird and noisy. Great drummer, and their guitarist and bassist both had keyboards and sang. Their lead singer's voice was totally different, owing to his disease- he sang from a wheelchair and rocked out behind me when Mission of Burma came on. Bunnies brought some supertropic dinosaur-killing-squirrels music. I can't say that I loved them, but I could see where they were coming from, and I'd definitely give a CD of theirs a try. Maybe I'll be able to dig some songs out of it.

As you can probably see from the setlist, there were a few too many repeats this night, but there were more tracks overall, and a few rare treats. Hunt Again rocked hard, and Dumbells sated my urge to hear So Fuck It in concert, thanks to similar guitar histrionics in both songs. The new track Hi-Fi seemed to go over better thanks to some stronger lyrics and more impassioned playing in the middle section, which was admittedly quite good. Donna Sumeria was a real standout here, really showcased everything the band could do- a great disco dance beat intercut with gut-wrenching fills, funky guitar with freakouts and weird noise riffs, and pummelling, supple bass throughout. Though the music the second night was not as mind-blowing, I did meet the band, and they were super nice. I was surprised to find that they were rather flattered I made the trip to Boston. Evidently, they don't think of themselves as big famous rock stars. (Probably because they aren't famous, but they do rock.) Both Roger and Clint gave me a firm handshake and an appreciative comment for getting out to their neck of the woods, and I even got a photo with Roger:

I'm the ecstatic one on the right. Shut up.

Special thanks to fellow fans Terri and Tina. Terri rocked out with me the first night, as seen here:

God, my head looks huge. Terri's on the right, yeah...

She was totally in the zone for most of the show, dancing and singing along and just as into it as you can be. She was a great example of fan dedication, and I dug her rapturous grooving to the music.

The second night I stood behind Tina, a friendly and talkative fan from the band's early days. We had a lot of musical touchstones in common. Here's her with the handwritten setlist from Roger's amp:

Lucky lady got a souvenir.

She had some great stories about the Rat and the Space from '79. A great gal.

All photo credit goes to Brian Hampton, who made a great travel partner and roomie. Thanks dude.

It was a great trip. All in all, a wonderful weekend filled with adventure and delight. Maybe I'll see them again in April when they hit Chicago.