Aug 122013
“Boy, this is the greatest!”
It is, when you step into the squared circle of Rock Town Hall. Try a left jab or lead with your right uppercut. The All-Star Jam is the place to tell us what’s on your mind.
“Boy, this is the greatest!”
It is, when you step into the squared circle of Rock Town Hall. Try a left jab or lead with your right uppercut. The All-Star Jam is the place to tell us what’s on your mind.
SNSI has me jonesing for some live roots-rock. Anyone ever seen this gal Valerie June?
http://youtu.be/nEhKbjrSfp4
She’s going to be at the Iota Club in DC on Sunday night. May have to check her out.
Great essay in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine that centers on a cult musician and a cult writer who helped fan the flames of said musician’s legacy. Said rock writer is an old ally of ours. The NYT writer does a really good job of framing the dynamics that I would think most of us who frequent the Halls of Rock can identify. Thanks to Andyr for the tip!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/magazine/she-told-herself-she-couldnt-die-because-she-had-to-write-his-story.html?pagewanted=all
I disagree with the notion that…
“The advantage of obscurity is that the gaps in an artist’s biography leave ample space to fill in with whatever you like. The more you learn, the more that space disappears.”
What we need is THAT book about Curt Boettcher. Why wouldn’t we want to share more knowledge about his music.
Further, unlike other cult cause-celebres (Nick Drake, Big Star) I don’t think Boettchers legacy has caught quite enough fire due to a couple of reasons.
1. There is not a decent compilation or introduction to his music (well, that I’ve seen)
2. The Millienium or Ballroom is just not that accessible for some ears.
Despite that Mrs Eden has “found god” it is refreshing that she is willing to share her passion. With enough prodding perhaps the writer would be willing to collaborate with her on that long lost book.
File under “someone didn’t listen to the lyrics”:
Remember that post we had a while ago about poor choices in walk up music (for baseball players)? I thought of it today during today’s staff kick off in the district Mr. Royale and I both work in. This well-greased Silicon Valley town decided to honor the hard-working teachers who had put 15, 20, 25, or 30 years of work in the school district by playing the following song as their names were announced:
“A Town Called Malice”
Geez
Wow, there’s someone who really missed the point!
Highly entertaining – and long – piece on the Eagles’ documentary:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9562051/the-eagles-greatest-hit
Despite the topic and the BS byline, I trudged through and was rewarded with a snarky comment at Jay Mariotti’s expense. This did not come close to making the ordeal worthwhile, but at least I’ll be able to sleep now.
aloha
LD
Could someone please explain this Brian Wilson/Jeff Beck thing? It just seems so bizarre I haven’t even looked at anything online to try to get a handle on it.Comments appreciated.
That’s for real? I saw something about that in passing and figured it had to be a collaboration between Jeff Beck and the Giants’ former closer named Brian Wilson. That seemed to be more believable.
If something is actually going down between Beck and the genius Brian Wilson, my guess is it’s yet another thing that’s been gnawing at Brian in his long-over competition with the Beatles: Jeff Beck covered a bunch of Beatles songs and worked with George Martin, right? Brian has been dying to get Jeff to record an instrumental version of Smile.
Oh, it’s On.
I like how the Wondermints, the band that faithfully re-created 99.9% of “SMiLE!” spend .1% of their time sleepwalking through “Surfin’ USA” and the other 99.9% watching JBeck to see what he’ll do next
aloha
LD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai6wfqfs22Y
Very curious about today’s poll. I’ve been thinking about how members of bands like Superchunk and Quasi are in their mid-40s now, and they still play their music with conviction and in some cases have only gotten better as musicians without losing much of the fire. When The Who were around that age, they were subjecting us to the 1989 tour. Sometimes, it’s not the “indie” bands that need slack-cutting.
NOW someone’s finally going to back me up on how bad “Eminence Front” is? 🙂
Seriously, thanks for catching this. I’d been meaning to follow up the poll with a comment from my 16-year-old son that inspired it. Maybe I should take 5 minutes and do that. Stay tuned!
Worth a listen: ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS: ”Beyond Belief (Give & Take Remix)” — http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/16585874648/elvis-costello-the-attractions-beyond-belief