Art Deco — Detail from Asheville Music School

Asheville has more than its share of Art Deco architecture, a good thing. There are a number of reasons for this. I would guess that the main reason is that the town was blossoming into a popular mountain resort in roughly the same period the Art Deco style was developing. That probably attracted architects like Douglas Ellington to come do their thing, or things.

This pic is from the corner of the Asheville Music School. It’s right down the street from my house and my kids take guitar lessons there. The building is not that exciting, but these pilasters are definitely handsome. There are a half dozen or so spread across the façade. The center strip appears to be bronze and terminates at the top with a light fixture. Those blue lights are a nice little surprise in the evening.

R.E.M. — Document

• Artist: R.E.M.
• Title: Document
• Year: 1987
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: ?
• Keeper: Yes

It’s taken me a while to give this a proper listen because I can’t stop listening to a new record that I’m very excited about. I’ll probably post that one next. Of course, this is a great album and it includes the mega-hits “Finest Worksong”, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, and “The One I Love.” I can’t say I sit around the house playing R.E.M. records all the time, but I have to admit this is well-crafted music that is essentially timeless.

More about R.E.M.’s Document at Wikipedia.

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers — Damn the Torpedoes

• Artist: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
• Title: Damn the Torpedoes
• Year: 1979
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1979 – Fort Bragg Post Exchange
• Keeper: Yes

I’m not sure about writing this review. I don’t know much about Tom Petty or the Heartbreakers. I can’t compare it to their other work because I only own one other LP by them and it’s a CD. However, Tracy insists I’m the one for this job because: 1) it’s my album, 2) it is the first album I ever bought, and 3) I play it a lot.

It is my album, and when Tracy and I united our vinyl together in holy matrimony, there was no duplicate for Damn the Torpedoes. In fact it was our only Tom Petty record.

It is the first album I bought. I had been living in Germany where ABBA ruled. They were all I heard except for my sister’s cassettes in the car. She is six years older than me, and she forced Ted Nugent, Kiss and Queen on my younger sister and me at high decibles.

When we moved back to the USA my sister moved out to CA, leaving me in a musical void. The radio played disco (it was 1979) and the rock station (there was only one) played a lot of Jimmy Buffet.

One day my friend and I walked to the base PX (post exchange) where she wanted to buy the latest record by The Babys. Maybe I felt pressure to buy a record too – or maybe I was desperate for something better than the radio, or the Firefall and Toto cassettes my sister left behind. I specifically remember picking up an REO Speedwagon album at the store, something with Tuna in the title, but I bought Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Damn the Torpedoes instead (Thank you, Jesus).

Looking back, I think I went with TPHB because of the album cover. It looked fresh. It didn’t look like anything my older sister had, and after years of being called a “copycat” by her, the last thing I wanted was more of her music. I mean, I was about to go into high school, I had to be me (Thank you, Marlo Thomas).

I do play this record a lot. I’ve liked it since the first listen. To me, it has a lot of energy, and in 1979, it sounded new and we all needed something other than Supertramp and Pink Floyd (we still do). The Babys were new too, and I liked my friend’s purchase, but I was always glad the Tom Petty record came home with me. I began to wonder if I was a musical geinus to select such a record with out knowing anything about the band.

There are nine songs on this record. I love eight of them. The ninth, “Louisiana Rain”, is a little too ballad-like for me, yet it is the chorus to “Louisiana Rain” that I am always singing when the album is over. Songs like “Refuge” still sound fresh, but my favorite song has to be “Even the Losers.”

OMD (Ochestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) — Telegraph

• Artist: OMD (Ochestral Manoeuvres In The Dark)
• Title: Telegraph
• Year: 1983
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 7
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1983 – Somewhere in Fairfax, VA
• Keeper: Yes

Long overdue, here’s the latest record: “Telegraph” by Ochestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, better known as simply OMD. I didn’t expect to like this very much despite the fact that I bought an OMD record myself way back when, but I have to say I do. This single is an almost eight minute “extended version” of the song with a variety of cool synth sounds and vocals that remind me of Alvin and the Chipmunks, or maybe 999. My favorite bit is the chime sound prominent in the early part of the song. The flip side is a drum-less instrumental titled “66 and Fading” that sounds like the band’s name.