Robert Christgau's Music Criticism Blog - Expert Witness - MSN Music

Tommy Womack

No, Not That Womack & Womack

By Xgau Mar 23, 2012 2:02AM

Tommy Womack: There, I Said It! (Cedar Creek '07)

Rising from the icky depths of the lyrically, vocally, and harmonically abject "A Songwriter's Prayer," a 40-year-old Nashville lifer finds solace in a forgotten WTF he wrote at 28 and by age 44 comes up with a bunch of new ones about bad jobs, fluorescent lighting, and low-grade cigarette, beer, and Xanax dependency. The climax would be the proud admission "I'm Never Gonna Be a Rock Star" except that the climax is the seven-minute must-hear "Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood," a world-historically unromantic rocker about rock after 40. Also crucial is "Nice Day," about his boy and his wife and a friend's swimming pool. It won a prize. A MINUS

 

Tommy Womack: Now What! (Cedar Creek)

Reflective without wallowing in might-have-beens, his nasal drawl weary and at ease with itself, he's an established failure who's calmed down considerably for a pimple on Dylan's ass who believes the best thing about ADD is that it never bothers you too long. "90 Miles an Hour on a Dead End Street" is no advertisement for chianti just as "Pot Head Blues" is no advertisement for cannabis. In one strong song, he feels the heat of an old flame on a checkout line and is so glad the burns have healed. In several other strong songs, he pitches woo wifeward. A MINUS

 

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jeff melnick (jmel64)
Mar 24, 2012 6:40AM
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Just back from  NYC after a quick trip to EMP (met Fraptron out front!) and delighted to see the Tommy Womacks here.  Weirdly enough, Wednesday night I sent my daughter to pick some music out while I cooked dinner.  She randomly grabbed Tommy W's Stubborn which sounded great.  I hadn't listened to it in years.  And the cover photo is already blurry! 

Got to see the amazing Coup at Brooklyn Bowl Thursday night. They've retooled as a quite Street Sweeperized band, and it was a fabulous show.  Guitarist B'Nai Rebelfront was all over the place.  Silk E sounded  fabulous--including,​ bizarrely on a cover of "Satellite of Love" that followed an abbreviated "Me and Jesus the Pimp."    And Boots Riley is some kind of front man wearing a beautiful Black Cowboy duster and fringed pants, a Jagger strut and trying out some Howlin' Wolf (by way of Taj Mahal?) vocal moves. 

And reminding us that if you don't show up the Movement won't look like you.
bradluen
Mar 24, 2012 3:44AM
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2003 notes, no one knows what it means but it's provocative edition:

When "Letter from an Occupant" broke, everyone thought the New Pornographers were Neko Case's band, a misjudgement soon corrected. Then we all thought they were Carl Newman's group, despite nobody knowing what his songs meant (including him). Word will soon be that they're Dan Bejar's crew, now that Destroyer are making good records. But the band has always belonged to John Collins and Kurt Dahle, perhaps the era's greatest rhythm section (though ?uestlove and cronies may have the stronger case). "The Laws Have Changed", which is about either Moses or Dubya depending on which Songmeanings contributor you credit, is a showcase for the pair, who groove like the best possible faculty Motown covers band.

Of the two indie bands that in 2003 could match the Pornos for musicianship, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs needed Collins less than the White Stripes. It's a shame they never got any residuals from "Since U Been Gone". Still, "Maps" is a lesser song than Clarkson's hit, not because Clarkson is a more convincing humanoid (she isn't), but because f-ck that guy, we're so moving on.
Semi Mike (ShadyShack)
Mar 23, 2012 9:14PM
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George - Thanks kind sir! That's another one to mark offa me bucket list.

Tommy Gets His Tons ...oh damn I'm late. Still play that album once a week. Which reminds me didn't Colin Meloy write the 33 1/3 about Let It Be? Isn't that one of the oddest choices for that record? I haven't read it, and I'm doubly dubious to do so unless some of our esteemed EW'ers convince me otherwise.

Ryan Maffei
Mar 23, 2012 8:42PM
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I'm not and never will be Cam (merely Randall, or preferably Jackie Mayhem), but here's a much higher-resolution image of Now What's cover I found lying around:

goo.gl/Tu1Ok

Now thumb me down and call me pretentious!
Robert Christgau (Xgau)
Mar 23, 2012 7:08PM
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Cam: I have a physical too. I have no way to scan that stuff into my computer so didn't think to look for Keef there. But textual evidence on the Alpha Male song suggests it's his son, not his daughter, on the drums.


Greg Morton (GMort)
Mar 23, 2012 6:56PM
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Liam: I thought of Tommy Flanagan, but wasn't sure he fit. Now that you mention it though, Flanagan, Waits, Ze, Verlaine. That'd be a heck of a show.

Also, apropos of nada --

First day of spring two days ago, it snowed all day and all night. Today it was mid 50's, not a cloud in the sky, the streets were all clear, so my wife and I took our first bike ride of the year. Downtown, across the bridge, one park to another. Ended up at a Starbucks in a strip mall for liquid nourishment and an oatmeal raisin cookie. Typical Starbucks crowd -- friendly female bald barista with huge hoop earrings, free wi-fi users, two homeless looking guys licking the dregs of their cups for the 20th time, a college student in aviator sunglasses waiting for a friend. And then "Madame George" from Astral Weeks came on the sound system and I instantly thought, what would Lester Bangs have to say about all this?

Cam Patterson
Mar 23, 2012 6:46PM
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Bob-- I have a hard copy of the CD. The photo is still about cell phone-camera quality, but Keef's visage is much more obvious. The physical package also reveals that a) Womack's daughter looks exactly like him and b) she plays the drums.
Robert Christgau (Xgau)
Mar 23, 2012 6:10PM
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1) Anyone planning to see my EMP thingy tomorrow should be aware that although Dave Laing is listed first I'll probably present first, because I'm writing about the first half of Gillett's life and he's writing about the rest.
2) Resolution on the second Womack photo is unusually shitlisty because all the other images I found had a white border I had no idea how to Gimp off (because I'm an idiot, I mean). This was the only square I could find. Cam must have a better computer than mine if he could tell the type on the shirt is reversed when I didn't even recognize Keith. Then again, I already knew that.
Liam Smith (DJ Protagonist)
Mar 23, 2012 5:36PM
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Greg - or Tommy Flanagan?  Played on both Saxophone Colossus and Giant Steps.  Could keep it in mind for the Feast of St Thomas.

Chris, sorry I'm down one Facebook friend, but hope I'm not down a friend...

Re last thread, sorry this is late, but some nice Fatoumata Diawara from Later here: http://bit.ly/GTwp3v​

George, I like the avatar, I went to the same school.

Terry Riley fans may care to know that Tom Ravenscroft played In C in its entirety on BBC 6 Music the other night.  Available here for a few days: http://bbc.in/GDRomI​

Cam Patterson
Mar 23, 2012 5:34PM
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Womack's Now What! CD cover is so deglamorized that it's practically glam.
I'm not sure that it is evident from the picture above, but the picture is also inverted ("Keith Richards" is spelled backwards). Rock record as typographical error.
JY49NY
Mar 23, 2012 5:27PM
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So I chose work over EMP today and I'm reading some tweets now and it sounds like it was a great conference today.  Here's hoping we get some feedback this evening from any EWitnesses who were lucky enough to attend today.  Wish I could have heard Banning Eyre on Cairo pop especially, and the Stampfel interview too.  Well...I'll definitely be there tomorrow.

JY49NY
Mar 23, 2012 5:21PM
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Supposedly there's a new (I think) Grateful Dead documentary out now called Dawn of the Dead which features, among others, our esteemed host.  Can't seem to locate it anywhere though - definitely not on Netflix.
spoonknife
Mar 23, 2012 5:16PM
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Mitch/Deacon: Weiss is one of the more prominent hip-hop bloggers (I guess? how do you measure blog prominence?).  He's the guy behind Passion of the Weiss (http://goo.gl/e1pb7​), which has a personal bio under the Staff section.
LazyOldSon - Peter G.
Mar 23, 2012 5:07PM
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Womack's Now What! CD cover is so deglamorized that it's practically glam. "I'm Never Gonna Be a Rock Star" could be its caption.

A couple gems worth hearing from his Stubborn album: "Christian Rocker" ("I want to be a Christian rocker but the devil's got all the good drummers") and "Rubbermaid" - the lengths are 35 seconds and 37 seconds respectively.
JY49NY
Mar 23, 2012 3:25PM
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I used to own It Will Stand: Minit Records 1960-1963 but I sold my vinyl when Xgau reviewed a CD equivalent called Finger Poppin' and Stompin' Feet: 20 Classic Allen Toussaint Productions for Minit Records 1960-1962 which actually includes 10 of the 14 tracks from the earlier comp.  Now I see that the CD is selling used for only $ 49.95.  WOw - thanks George Alias for sharing that great Nawlins music.

JY49NY
Mar 23, 2012 3:20PM
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rstay -

 Re: PPU VIII - Kolejnice duni  - this translates to Rails Rumble and it includes studio recordings from 1977-1982, including their epic dirge 100 Points (100 bodu) which tries the patience of even this PPU Fan.  Lots of other great stuff on here though.

Cam Patterson
Mar 23, 2012 2:08PM
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Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out!
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about the blogger

Robert Christgau

Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.

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