Jun 012020
May 282020
In our first pandemic relief Dugout Chatter from a few weeks ago, one of the questions you answered was whether there was “an RTH-worthy deep dive we’ve long toyed with but never undertaken.”
It’s hard to say the following topic, suggested by Townsman cherguevara, was surprisingly unexplored, as we’d been out of action for the past 5 years, but here goes:
A deep dive… Not sure. I was thinking it might be cool to have a thread where we only discuss music from the last 5-10 years. Who are today’s keepers of the rock flame? Is it possible to re-map rock tropes onto the younger generation of musicians? Who are the innovators and creators of original ideas today, not just Greta Van Fleet imitators? Or is rock music moribund? This would be a challenge for me, maybe for others too.
To be honest, as much as I’ve been looking forward to bringing this topic to The Main Stage, I don’t know where this is headed!
May 282020
Well look – or listen – to who has shown up to wish us well. On his birthday, no less! That’s class. Tremendous thanks to the Townsperson who alerted Lee to our celebration.
May 272020
I don’t like Oasis. Never did, but I watched their documentary, Supersonic, a few weeks ago, and have been examining my rock ‘n roll fetishes ever since.
I thought their music was boring, but if I don’t focus on their tension-free songs (god, they could take 3 chords and stretch them like the elastic waistband on my last surviving pair of underwear from the 20th century), I can sense a faint tingle in my rock ‘n roll loins.
The stirring is the deep-set sex appeal of my Anglophilia. Some of my rock ‘n roll fetishes are rooted in my growing up an Anglophile. Rocking along to Beatles records as a little boy will do that to a grown man. Their lead singer, is it Liam, the one who trims his eyebrows and has the better hair, really puts on that insistent, droning English accent.
Oh yeah, baby, sing it like Syd Barrett crossed with John Lennon!
When all cylinders are firing, the sexier Gallagher overcomes his complete lack of stage presence by wearing round specs, like John, to go with his superior hair and Mac-wear. The guy may hunch over the mic with his hands behind his back in an “I could be doing better things with my time” way, but his Look was almost always spot on!
Let me see how you look when those glasses start to fall down the bridge of your nose. Now push them up. Oh, yeah! Now change into the blue Mac! Wait – leave on the vaguely military shirt with epaulets!
This is not a post about Oasis. I only use them as an example. The last thing I would want to see break out in this thread is some odd suggestion that their music is the UK equivalent of the relentless vibe of Tom Petty‘s Full Moon Fever. This is a post asking you to share some of your rock fetishes.
Rock ‘n roll is an entire genre set up around fetishes, but I want to bore down to your most specific ones. I’ll give you an example of a slice of broadly appealing psychedelic Anglophilia that contains something so specific that it pushes it over the edge for me. I believe they call it The Money Shot in the porn industry. After the jump…
May 262020
This is a simple one and may be a brief one. I can think of only a few songs that meet my criteria but I’m counting on the Hall to know more.
I need songs that give props to other singers. This is not the mere mention of someone’s name. And it’s gotta be more than one name. You’ll know what I’m looking for when you listen to this song. Multiple singers and songs are specified.
I’m starting off with this one because I think it will be unknown to many people. And because it’s a killer.
According to Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles 1955-2002, this song didn’t chart. I can’t find out much about The Brothers Two. This was released on Crimson Records, a Philly label whose biggest hit (I’d guess) was The Soul Survivors’ “Expressway To Your Heart.” I can’t recall if it was a local hit in Philly, and I’d just be guessing as to where or when I got the single.
EPG, what do you know about this?
As with all Last Man Standing threads, don’t bogart this thread! Please limit yourself to one entry per post. In other words, if you’ve for 15 songs in mind, post them one at a time, ideally one after every other participant thinks he or she has drained the last entry.
Last Man Standing starts now!
May 252020
I’ve long had the pleasure in knowing Townsman Hrrundivbakshi in real life. He’s got the sort of whiz-bang mind I imagine it would take to work in a presidential administration. An even remotely functioning one with an even remotely empathetic leader, that is. He’s a great musician, one who combines chop, theoretical knowledge, and balls. And he’s nice. Like “bring him home to meet your folks” nice.
A few people have written me offline since the start of our pandemic-relief resumption of activities in the Halls of Rock to ask why we haven’t seen more of our beloved HVB, one of the undeniable white hats around here. Well, the man’s been hunkered down in Dallas churning out a dozen (and counting) new songs. His latest one, “The Niceness of Rock,” dropped just the other day, as I was finishing up my own new song. I waited until I was done with my work to watch it, because I feared I’d get intimidated by my friend’s latest work, no matter how nice he is. Well, I finally listened to it, and the first thing I thought was, “That sounds like the new theme song for Rock Town Hall!”
The next thing I thought, ignoring the graphic he posted with the track, was “That’s mighty presumptuous of me! Why would he have been thinking about Rock Town Hall why writing about the niceness of rock?”
What do you know, about 30 minutes later, I got an e-mail from my friend with the subject line “New RTH Theme Song for a New Decade!” He did have us in mind! That, my friends, is nice!
Without further ado, here’s “The Niceness of Rock.”
May 242020
Get your double quarantine on in this All-Star Jam.
