“Mr. Mod, you got a problem with my hat?” (Photo by Ragephoto.)

A few weeks ago we received an e-mail from Andy Shernoff, founding member of The Dictators and a longtime rock ‘n roll agent provacateur. It turns out Andy was an occasional reader of Rock Town Hall and wanted to let us know he was coming to Philadelphia with his rock memoir/solo show, When Giants Walked the Earth: A Musical Memoir. You can read our little write up of that show and follow some links to the man’s very cool career here. Let’s just say that the The Back Office staff and I were thrilled and honored to learn that a guy who’d had his hands in so much of our shared musical heritage knew what went on in these hallowed halls. With the palms of our hands red from high-fiving, we asked Andy if he’d answer a few questions for us. Andy glady agreed before realizing what kind of piercing, nerdy questions he’d be getting from the likes of us. Nevertheless, the man took a deep breath and gave it his rock-nerdsage all!

Andy brings his When Giants Walked the Earth tour to The Rosebud Bar in Somerville, MA, outside Boston, this Saturday, July 10. I encourage our Boston-area Townspeople to attend. But that’s not the only place you’ll be hearing (and have been hearing) him in the coming week: “I just did a cool deal…,” he tells me, “Major League Baseball is using The Dictators’ version of ‘California Sun’ to promote the All-Star Game. This recording is from the demo that got us our first record deal and was the very first time I ever stepped into a recording studio. Truly bizarre!!”

Among his other activities Andy plays with The Master Plan, a party-rock supergroup that includes Keith Streng and Bill Milhizer from The Fleshtones and Paul Johnson from Waxing Poetics – and that features contributions from Hoodoo Gurus’ Dave Faulkner, who recently represented Australia in the Rock Town Hall World Cup of Rock ‘n Roll.

But enough of my yapping, let’s get on with our chat with Andy Shernoff…after the jump. Continue reading »