Jul 132015
Brothers and cousins and whatever the members of Full House considered themselves, come together with your pertinent thoughts on the world of music.
Brothers and cousins and whatever the members of Full House considered themselves, come together with your pertinent thoughts on the world of music.
Is it some anniversary of We Are the World or the big concerts or whatever? I was reminded of this old piece:
https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/there-s-a-choice-we-re-making/
And whatever happened to Alexmagic and Oats?
That would be Live Aid! What a long freaking day that was!
John Wesley Harding had fun with it with a song called:
July 13th 1985
https://youtu.be/UmgF4ElzP9A
I’m reading this oral history of Live Aid, and the following quote from Brian Wilson has taken the early lead for Best Quote:
Wilson: The audience was full of energy and love. We got a lot of love, and it was a great night for all of us. It was a pleasure being there when they [the Beach Boys] performed the cover versions of all of my songs.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/ticket/2015/07/12/live-aid-1985/#qLjlrxQWDgOsTrzQ.99
Great piece on a frequently dismissed genre that some of us cut our teeth on:
https://classicipodclassic.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/in-defense-of-college-rock/
Interesting reading. Would be worthy of more discussion on this site…
Interesting piece. Even though I think I’d pretty much checked out by 1986, I am sympathetic to the writer’s general argument even if most of the records he cites don’t and never did resonate with me. (Game Theory, Let’s Active, Young Fresh Fellows, yes! Thin White Rope, GBV, no!) But I appreciate the idea of someone puncturing the notion that, you know, everything was great after Nevermind came out and set the world to rights again.
Huh, I didn’t know college rock needed to be defended. What was the alternative?? Madonna, Gloria Estafan, Poison, Motley Crüe. You can call me a “misty old fart” as well.
My local university station played a lot of albums in both top 10 lists during the mid to late 80’s. I would often listen to these songs often not knowing who they were, yet these alternative sounds clicked on a light that major radio never did. My brother and I spent a good chunk of the 90’s hunting down these albums on vinyl.
As the writer states, most of these bands were just bashing around in the clubs and putting out independent releases just for fun. That’s where the tags of suck and mediocrity get wrongly associated with college rock. I appreciated the effort and enthusiasm. Just yesterday and coincidentally , I was listening to a mix tape of Guadalcanal Diary, The Connells, Big Dipper and Game Theory. Sounded just all right to me.
Well done!
http://www.headstuff.org/2015/07/if-male-musicians-were-described-the-same-way-as-female-musicians/
DOLLARS TO DOUGHNUTS MR. MOD FORWARDS THIS LINK TO TOWNSMAN SETHRO DEPT.:
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/acdc-song-end/
That is hilarious!
I’m so proud of the EZTV guys, they came out of our program. I like a lot of what our students do, but I’ll be honest – I’m old! I’m not into the rap or electronica that they dig, so often my response is that I like their music but it’s beyond my wheelhouse. Not these guys, they are right in the solar plexus of my musical tastes. There’s another group that came out of here, Steady Sun, they are doing cool things too. To have a conversation with a 20-something about Emitt Rhodes, Can or the Zombies is to make you feel that maybe the world can be ok after all.
I’ve never been interested in mainstream rock. In the 80’s it was punk/new wave/alternative for me, not Van Halen. In the 90’s it was stuff like Jellyfish, Self, Crowded House, not Nirvana.
There are always plenty of sub-genres below the mainstream, and we know that the best music doesn’t necessarily float to the top. What else is new?