godihateyourband

jim dickinson on big star's 3rd

2011-04-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

rockpile!

2011-03-22T23:59:00.000-05:00

pretty cool doc from 1979. in 12 parts

just for you

2011-03-06T01:06:00.001-05:00

godihatetheaughts

2011-02-14T12:07:00.002-05:00

GIHYB friend and occasional contributor Live Oak Blues has a pretty great radio show called "Left of the Dial" on Monday afternoons from 3-5pm over at growradio.org. He asked to me to put together a playlist for today's show of my best of the 2000s. Journey with us back to those dark days before Arcade Fire won best grammy awards ...

american idol???

2011-01-21T01:03:00.005-05:00

i'm not a follower, though i've occasionally watched. one thing i've never understood is why anyone has a problem with the show. when peeps (and some actual music stars) bitch about the fact that the "artists" who become famous from the show haven't come up the traditional way, i have to laugh. did britney spears slog it through the clubs?? it's fucking show biz. is the music industry unlike chase bank?

this doesn't relate to the topic as much as it did when i dreamt up this amazing piece of journalistic insight, but here you are. greatest rock band ever begins as worst band ever

GIHYB's Top Ten Things of 2010

2011-01-02T22:53:00.007-05:00

(ed note: a series of collected thoughts from GIHYB contributors on the year that wuz 10)

as always, i know i'm forgettin something. in no particular order, except for TITUS ANDRONICUS!!!!!!!!

like:

the monitor, titus andronicus
as i said in an earlier post "... comically long songs ... pretentious as all get out ... channelling jim steinman songwriting at times …" and easily the best record of the year

brothers, black keys
i liked "attack and release" for the most part (lots didn't), i thought dan's solo record was pretty cool. i thought blackroc was one of the lamest exercises ever (lets all leave our A games at home and see what happens???). i can only listen to this straight through. that's sumthin

pavement live in central park
possibly the perfect reunion concert by a band that (in their legend) should be embarrassed for winning that distinction. guess what happened indie rockers? they turned our to be a (GASP) rock band (who got better with time) with a frontman who can play his ass off. put it this way, they fucking opened with their best song, and i coulda stayed another half hour after they were done ... i was drinking an unlimited supply of free beer, but that's … beside the point?

that amazing arcade fire video
... of course none of my childhood addresses worked, nor did my wife's, but that house a half a mile away from my wife's childhood place that we'd never seen worked just fine. i'd include the album as well, but in reality, each subsequent AF record is a better sounding version of the far superior debut

the big to do, drive-by truckers
requisite amount of patterson filler, leaving the best song off the record ("girls who smoke"), and an almost no-show by cooley stills adds up to a winner. choice cuts: birthday boy, all the songs about death

strychnine dandelion, the parting gifts
greg cartwright should write the phone book, and then he should sing it. google that shit young!!!

completely illegal advance of next record, hunx & his punx
yeah fuckers, i know people. i have no idea when this record is coming out, but, suffice ... i have heard the future of rock and roll and it's a gay dude backed by girls that should be played in phil spector's cell 24/7 to show him what a waste of space he was for the last 40+ years

"bottled in cork" (video), ted leo & the pharmacists
tom scharpling rules in just about any medium. ted leo wrote a great song. scharpling made it epic

my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, kanye west
this stupidly titled record can be pretty fucking interesting

king of the beach, wavves
given this dude's legendary meltdowns … aw, who cares? this was fun

dislike:

my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, kanye west
is this guy fucking retarded?

never fulfilling my wish to spend a day at the OTB. RIP

Jack's Top 10 of 2010

2011-01-02T22:09:00.002-05:00

(ed note: a series of collected thoughts from GIHYB contributors on the year that wuz 10)

1. The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monáe (Badboy/Wondaland)

Sounds like: A zillion things including Funkadelic, April March, Outkast, The Association, the soundtrack to West Side Story and maybe even Sgt. Pepper.

Top tracks include "Locked Inside", "Cold War" and "Mushrooms & Roses"

2. Hippies, Harlem (Matador)

They're from Texas not Harlem and they reminded me why my favorite bands are usually trios.

Sounds like: Pixies, The Minders, Violent Femmes

Top tracks include "Gay Human Bones", "Number One" and "Cloud Pleaser"

3. True Love Cast Out All Evil, Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River (ANTI-)

I was curious to hear how Roky with a mortgage would sound. Only half of the songs sound insane.

Top tracks include "Please, Judge" and "John Lawman"

4. Catching a Tiger, Lissie (Fat Possum)

Sounds like: The Stone Poneys, Stevie Nicks, Lucinda Williams, We Five

Top tracks include "Record Collector", "Bully", "Stranger" and "Loosen the Knot"

5. Strychnine Dandelion, The Parting Gifts (In The Red Records)

Another Greg Cartwright record and so far my favorite one.

Sounds like: Emmylou Harris, The Rolling Stones, Arthur Alexander

Top tracks include "Keep Walkin'" and "Born to Be Blue"

6. Love to Live, The Living Sisters (Vanguard)

Eleni Mandell's 2007 LP was my top record of that year so this was no surprise.

Sounds like: Gale Garnett, The Roches, Lesley Gore

Top tracks include "Ferris Wheel" and "Blue"

7. Rohnert Park, Ceremony (Bridge Nine)

Finally a loud record!

Sounds like: Naked Raygun, Fucked Up, the weaker cuts on Zen Arcade

Top tracks include "Sick", "Open Head" and "Back in '84"

8. Tin Can Trust, Los Lobos (Shout! Factory)

Sounds like: Los Lobos

Top tracks include "Burn it Down" and "The Lady of the Rose"

9. The Big To-Do, Drive-By Truckers (ATO)

Doesn't sound like: DBT

Top tracks include "The Fourth Night of My Drinking" and "Birthday Boy"

10. New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh, Erykah Badu (Universal Motown)

Sounds like: a tamer but more manageable and ultimately better version of Part One.

Top tracks include "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)" and "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long"

how did i miss this/kiss?

2010-12-17T00:56:00.002-05:00

douchebaggery obviously knows no bounds when dealing with the juggernaught of KISS, but this actually might take the prize. a video of Ace Frehley's hit, "New York Groove".

most geeks know that KISS tried to quadruple their sales power by releasing 4 solo albums on the same day in 1978 with albums by the guys dressed in character on their respective covers. it was by all accounts, a disaster, with one exception, lead guitarist Ace Frehley's number. (i bought and still have the awful Paul Stanley album)

that the video seems to fake the viewer into thinking that this was a KISS recording is beyond laughable. kudos to simmons for clapping instead of pretending to play the bass (like he did on "Alive" and alot of records).

non-interesting facts:

a) the song was not Frehley's. it's a cover of the english band Hello
b) the backing band is basically what became of David Letterman's Late Night band

c) RAWK

"we've been expecting you"

2010-09-02T21:31:00.004-05:00

one of the favorite records i've stumbled upon online recently is an old fave, husker du's true breakout LP "new day rising". the album is marked by incredible songwriting and performing AND one of the worst mixes known to mankind. let's just call it high end squall. SST house producer spot's days were numbered after this (still incredible) debacle, and mould and hart went on to awkwardly produce the rest of their canon (i never could stand that drum sound). it's no secret why the posthumous live record "the living end" is often my go to husker record. on it, they're unleashed, non-compressed to hell, AND grant hart sings his ass off. his backups on mould songs are often high points of seriously great songs.

ndr has always been my favorite record by the band. i saw them perform it in its entirety before it was released. it took what was promised on a half-dozen or so tunes on zen arcade and blew up. it has the requisite du complete crap at the end of the record, but it started a 3 album run that can hardly be quantified in terms of godhead.

the reason i'm bringing this up is a download i came across. it's the final mix of the record. i'm assuming pre-mastering, or perhaps the last mix the band okayed before spot made final changes. it is in a word, fucking AWESOME. norton's bass is audible, large, and rules. you forget how much he was a part of the sound. the mix just explodes out of the gate. unrelenting. also, there's an unreleased cut that won't change anyone's mind either way and thanks to it i finally have a digital version of "erase today" (from the blasting concept comp). godiluvtheinternets* ....

*it ain't hard to find

simmon's fambly jewels (spit)

2010-08-28T20:34:00.001-05:00

i am truly astounded by this, a legitimately GREAT song by douchebag extraordinare Gene Simmons. i had long since gotten over any adolescent KISS love by watching him & co over the years. this could be a Big Star outtake. from his first solo record. kudos to Michael Shelley for playing this on FMU today ... stunned ...

word

2010-08-24T14:28:00.000-05:00

christ

2010-07-27T00:12:00.002-05:00

nick's back. righteous. let's start building shit.

Heathen Child by MuteRecords

until further notice

2010-07-25T00:42:00.000-05:00

the greatest band on earth

6 stars?

2010-07-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

is there

2010-06-21T01:19:00.001-05:00

a band with a better feel than this?

duh

2010-06-20T01:24:00.001-05:00

duh

2010-06-20T01:21:00.001-05:00

in conclusion ...

2010-04-09T12:22:00.001-05:00

great article about chilton's life in new orleans the last 28 years.

chilton

2010-03-21T02:29:00.000-05:00

an easy intro to the non-big star:

alex chilton RIP

2010-03-19T01:18:00.004-05:00

this fucking SUCKS ... vic chesnutt, mark linkous, and alex chilton in succession. unreal.

the sad thing about chilton is for most ears (and most big star fans), he's been dead since the early 70s. let's get real, big star broke up in 1974 (read, nixon). yeah, they got back together (in a bastard but GREAT form in '93), but unless you count that 70s show, they were invisible-- much as they were during their existence ... but i come not to bury alex, but to praise him.

i first caught word of him via peter buck and paul westerberg. i still remember the day i saw a used copy of the first big star album in plan 9 records and didn't buy it (needed money for an ill repute LP or something). i just facebooked my friend seth who had the first copy of radio city i ever saw ... but they weren't my entrance. big star's third was the ticket. this album changed my world. it's still my favorite record. you know, a testament to this band was this blog's top albums of the 70s list. all three big star albums made it.

once i got in to big star i started hitting the solo stuff, and i really dug it. there are some tough listens, but honestly. much of the work he did post-BS is just as viable. "like flies on sherbert" is amazing in its rawness, its rockness, and its sheer balls. "bachs bottom" in its audacity. "high priest" in the 'i bet you thought i'd try and recreate big star, but i'm gonna play a bunch of songs i like playing'. "a man called destruction" in its sheer fun. i probably saw alex 4 times solo before i saw him even play a big star song. the legendary cranky dude (who always knew how to put on a show) would just scoff at requests, wanting to play standards and the occasional solo tune. it was at this time i realized what and incredible musician he was. his guitar playing is some of the most expressive i've ever witnessed. i fucking loved those shows.

someone today mentioned everyone has a chilton story. mine was great. went to see him as a double bill with mazzy star. we got to the club incredibly early for some reason and witnessed hope sandoval onstage deeming the club unworthy and refusing to play. refunds were given, but as we walked out, chilton, the "codgy dude" was sitting next to the guy dispensing money asking "wanna be on the guest list?". we went back in and witnessed the loosest, incredible show ever. at one point, he and his standup bass player played a medley he called "buck to bach", where they did as advertised. buck owens and bass player grabbing a bow and playing bach as alex followed along.

i got to see the reformed big star a couple of times, most memorably at SXSW a few years back. they were fucking brilliant. in no small part to the posies guys who were born to fill those roles, and jody stephens was beaming. alex was playing along. he had no love for that, and i admired him for it. the "been there, done that" mentality.

but i think my favorite alex moment ever was at my first big star reunion show i saw at tramps in the 90s. in the middle of the show, he whips out an idea for a cover to the guys, a dorsey swing song from the 40s (i wanna say pennsylvania 54-609, but i'm gettin no love from google!). he starts playing it and is excited. the band doesn't reciprocate and he's perplexed.

text honors go to jack who sent ... "tell (your wife) i'm sorry it happened on her birthday"

ps- i have an amazing show, which i did not attend, from the old knitting factory. the power was out and he played acoustic, with candles lighting the place. i'm going to post that soon.

the war of northern aggression

2010-03-15T23:43:00.003-05:00

titus andronicus "the monitor"
drive-by truckers "the big to-do"

albums of the year (so far) ... two records that have infected me.

"the monitor" ... really? civil war you punk ass northern kidz? ... the short ... comically long songs ... pretentious as all get out ... channelling jim steinman songwriting at times ... shades of ghostface (a fucking scooby doo reference? this dude is craig finn on a heavy sugar diet, the mix of billy bragg and the boss refs on the first tune is both brilliant and STOOPID), and the best fucking record i've heard in A WHILE. a way more compelling vision of teen alienation (and they ain't teens) than zen arcade (which, can we now agree was never a concept album to begin with?) or "footloose". this shit is fun, this shit is rock, this shit has a backbone. this is the odd record i hear and WISH i was in the band playin gtr. listening to this record gives me an understanding of what's going thru peep's screamin heads when they hear the opening chords of "thunder rd" or "heat of the moment" ... and not for nuthin, "theme from cheers" is not only the best song title of '10, but the best song (so far).

"the big to-do" ... slow burn epic in a fucking history of epics ... patterson tossin of ideas like a drunken nobel (not gettin thru the ideas half the time, but that's the fuckin charm) ... halfway thru wonderin why not more cooley??? (monster throwin scraps) ... they bought new pedals? .... backup vocals? ... "this fuckin job" bein a more compelling argument than anything obama has come up with as prez... shonna, who knew? adding a reigning sound worthy tune ... and cooley closin this thing with a ballad that could kill a fuckin loaded steam train.

i want these bands to date twice, get drunk, and fucking smack each other around.

geek shit

2010-03-12T01:40:00.006-05:00

interesting ... i just recently finished joe boyd's autobio "white bicycles". a great read which includes NOTHING about the band he's referencing. he commented on this elsewhere.

'American groups are very fluent. In any town you can find a bar with a jam band. There's places to play all the time. That doesn't happen much in Britain. English musicians are much less experienced and accomplished in a variety of styles. They're much less fluent. But when it comes to creating original pop music, it was an advantage because they had to reinvent the wheel. The fluency of American musicians led to a flattening out. They knew how to do everything but they just fit into long-established patterns. Whereas English people didn't. So you got a load of of English art students starting a band and not knowing what they wre doing and having to invent a way to play the original songs that had been written by the strong personality who led the band. And it was very effective in creating stuff that was genuinely a different take on this African American form.

Some of the most successful American things combine the two. What fascinated me about REM when I worked with them (Boyd produced Fables of the Reconstruction in a studio in Wood Green in 1985) was that they were like a mid-Atlantic meeting. You had Bill Berry and Mike Mills who were a good old boy rockin rhythm section who played frat parties for five years and could play anything. Then you had Stipe and Buck who were like English guys working in a record store reading liner notes, intellectuals who were trainspotterish about music and imagined things in their heads but had no real facility to do it. Peter Buck is not a guitar hero. He's a nerd who studied Fairport Convention records. Michael Stipe was full of all these ideas that he never thought he'd be able to do and then they met. That combination is what gave REM its power'.

2010-03-09T02:02:00.000-05:00

junkies

2010-03-01T01:30:00.001-05:00

are way more interesting than lindsay lohan ... well

sugar

2010-02-22T02:06:00.003-05:00

a forgottten classic by a really great band. sugar gets maligned (of course) cuz it's bob mould's post-husker band. but i defy anyone to deny their debut record's first 4 songs on any level. and this off their followup EP, is a friggin drum clinic, courtesy of my bud malcolm travis.

gabba too

2010-02-20T14:12:00.002-05:00

never been able to find this. gotten to the point i thought i'd dreamt seeing it BITD. i must remember to remind myself that i'm always right.

gabba

2010-02-17T22:31:00.002-05:00

being a giant ramones fan, i find it odd that i never knew of the existence of this live footage from the 1982 us festival. even odder is the fact that i didn't even know they played the damn fest. this is really interesting as it's a vastly different set than any i ever saw em play live or on any taped form. they're actively pushing current material. despite a tech glitch with joey's mike early on, they are in scorching form ... but there's still that issue with johnny. i guess it's comforting to know he's mere months away from getting his skull bashed in. enjoy

phranc

2010-02-13T23:52:00.010-05:00

as i seem to be on a rock film thing, i caught the pixies reunion tour doc loudQUIETloud on the hulu. it's streaming there for free right now.

this is a really bizarre band.

them pixies seem to exist in a vaccuum. other than the obligatory cobain quote at the top of the movie, there's nary a mention of other music anywhere. there are no testimonials-- no why we do this, why did we do this, no awkward or funny backstage visits from rock stars. not that standard rock doc stuff needs to be there, but it's oddly weird. understandably, it's a tour doc, and not a bio, but still.

charles thompson is cast as a sort of affable hitchcock character, and that's fine. he plays "the man". the guy that needed to say, "yeah, we're getting back together". nevermind that kim deal is arguably a bigger rock star, but the pixies do begin and end with him. their deference to him is deservably up front. the band's vaunted complete lack of communication is pretty well documented in the film, and makes the tweedy/bennett passive-aggressive salvo seem almost thoughtful in retrospect.

everyone seems slightly shell-shocked ... deal's emerging from rehab and takin baby steps ... loverling is soft kind of mess (but he's got nothing on dozens of casualties) ... santiago is just a working dad missing his kids ... but the lack of joy is palpable. on a level, i get it's about money (the WHY ARE WE DOING THIS is pretty up front), but the approach given alot of the time is a bunch of peeps who just happened to be successful at something that happened at the right time. i got the thought occasionally that one of em being nabbed from the masses and bein named "head car salesman for the northern quarter" woulda sufficed. i'm not tryin to be an idealist here, but juxtapose this against something like the townes van zandt "be here to love me" pic. this dude was a disaster on so many levels, but you knew his raison d'etre every fuckin frame.

i've always contended the pixies were a pretty mediocre live act, but this is a muted version of the late-80s/early-90s. balance that with audience members LITERALLY losing their freakin minds. deal seems to get that, and those are many of the flicks best moments. her meeting with fans. to me, deal in the real pixies years was the only thing that worked onstage.

thompson's admission that no one really gives a damn about his solo career, and his talking about playing his new songs for bandmates hoping a spark will be lit to initiate some new work, gives the flick some pulse towards the conclusion. i don't even knew if he meant it, and, in the end, nothing comes of it, and thus ...

mojo's list of best rock docs ever

2010-02-11T01:09:00.004-05:00

i can't really argue with mojo's list of greatest rock docs ever (with GIHYB comments).

1. Don't Look Back (1967)

as i get older, dylan, who is clearly the MAN in the movie looks sillier. not entirely silly yet, but sillier every view-- though i still rewind the donovan KILL-- that's still awesome.

2. DiG! (2004)

mesmerizing every second. if you'd told me i would watch a doc by two bands i could not give a shit about (and didn't after i watched them and listened to their stuff), would be this great? i wouldn't have believed you

3. The Last Waltz (1978)

genius? just fucking workmanlike diligence.

4. Gimme Shelter (1970)

watchable, and stil reeling that the band let this be released. as a teenager, i got to understand jagger's a pussy, and the stones sucked live in the late '60s (though not in the mid-60s or early 70s).

5. No Direction Home (2005)

the bomb

6. Fearless Freaks (2005)

fun as hell, and the first one i felt a part of. i once saw the lips in '87 with about 25 other people in c'ville, va. they had a light show that would've made the crue wince

7. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)

said here. i loved joe strummer. could watch this on a loop. too many campfire interviews??? go fuck yourself.

8. The Devil And Daniel Johnston (2005)

actually was at the premiere of this. i'm a somewhat johnston fan and kinda met the director a few times. a great movie, on many levels. compelling. you get through the airplane thing unscathed???

9. The Beatles Anthology (1995)

like every other beatles fan, was all about this. triumphant, it's great, incredible, but in a smaller scope, "let it be" was better.

10. End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones (2003)

as a ramones freak, learning to hate johnny ramone was not on my agenda, now it's part of the class. great movie.

death, taxes, 'n hatin new leaked tracks by DBT

2010-02-11T00:38:00.003-05:00

every year and a half or so i get a hold of a new track or 2 by the drive by truckers pre-album release. i hear em and don't like. as it turns out, i'm always wrong (aftermath usa-- WTF was i thinkin???). this year, same deal ... though "this job" is growin on me. fuckit. DBT is the best band standing. the new one march 16. order now.

2010-01-31T03:04:00.003-05:00

despite the fucking creepy end (yeah, I'm a fuckin dad!), this is a cool vid and reminds me of a great ride home from a shitty end of tour. we got the joey solo record in richmond heading back from austin. kudos trav!

grant hart ... vid from new album?

2010-01-29T01:56:00.002-05:00

doubtful with the oz footage, but a great song regardless.

still miss this band

2010-01-28T01:59:00.000-05:00

xmastime n i were in the audience ... fuckers ...

sick good

2010-01-23T01:30:00.000-05:00

Jack's thoughts on the top 50

2010-01-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

This list seems to be significantly more interesting than the song list we did a couple years back. While the contents of the list were not necessarily surprising, a few things struck me:

The Clash debut narrowly beat London Calling.

This was actually a pleasant surprise. I had them at #2 and #4, respectively.

The Sex Pistols beat the first Ramones LP.

This appeared to be a situation of great records canceling each other out. All five 1970s Ramones LPs received votes, while Swindle deservedly received none.

Big Star batted a thousand.

The 3 Big Star records placed in chronological order at #27, #29 and #33. They were the only artist to claim 3 spots. This is quite impressive considering Rocket to Russia, Live at Leeds, Some Girls and Give ‘Em Enough Rope didn’t chart.

VU definitely benefited from the 70s letdown.

If Loaded had been released 9 months earlier, things would have been different. While there is no doubt that it’s a great record (I had it at #9), there is absolutely no way that it would place #6 in a best of 1960s list. My guess is that it would fall somewhere between 30 and 40. Would the third record (just as good if not better than Loaded) crack the top 25 of the 1960s?

The Beatles are still the best.

All 4 Beatles received votes for their solo work with Harrison and Lennon charting. McCartney received several votes for various records. Conversely, neither of Bill Wyman’s solo records nor Mick Taylor’s solo record received any votes.

Soundtracks and Excess:

Saturday Night Fever charted at #47. In addition, several other soundtracks received votes including those from The Harder They Come, The Kids are Alright, Jaws, Star Wars and Superfly.

Six of the top fifty are double LPs (including two in the top five) and one is a triple LP. It was not a subtle decade.

The following well respected LPs failed to receive even one vote:

Five Leaves Left – Nick Drake
No Dice – Badfinger
Damned Damned Damned – The Damned
Plastic Letters – Blondie
Go Girl Crazy – The Dictators
In the City – The Jam
All Mod Cons – The Jam
The Cry of Love – Jimi Hendrix
The Madcap Laughs – Syd Barrett
Tumbleweed Connection – Elton John
(GI) – Germs
The Last Waltz – The Band
Shake Some Action – Flamin’ Groovies
Teenage Head – Flamin’ Groovies
All six of Tom Waits’ 70s LPs.

While top honors could go to Big Star (3 selections) or The Clash (two in the top five), I begrudgingly have to give it to Bob Dylan. In addition to Blood on the Tracks charting at #3, six more LPs received votes (it could be seven; I’m assuming that all of the votes for At Budokan were meant for Cheap Trick). This is pretty impressive considering the 70s may very well not even be Dylan’s second best decade.

The GIHYB TOP 50 Albums of the 1970s

2010-01-13T22:39:00.002-05:00

1. Exile on Main Street (The Rolling Stones)
2. Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
3. Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan)
4. The Clash (The Clash)
5. London Calling (The Clash)
6. Loaded (The Velvet Underground)
7. Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols (Sex Pistols)
8. Ramones (Ramones)
9. Who’s Next (The Who)
10. Marquee Moon (Television)
11. Sticky Fingers (The Rolling Stones)
12. After the Gold Rush (Neil Young)
13. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)
14. Let it Be (The Beatles)
15. All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
16. What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye)
17. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
18. Hunky Dory (David Bowie)
19. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)
20. Tapestry (Carole King)
21. Leave Home (Ramones)
22. The Cars (The Cars)
23. Innervisions (Stevie Wonder)
24. Moondance (Van Morrison)
25. Déjà Vu (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
26. Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
27. #1 Record (Big Star)
28. Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin)
29. Radio City (Big Star)
30. Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division)
31. Harvest (Neil Young)
32. Entertainment! (Gang of Four)
33. Third/Sister Lovers (Big Star)
34. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon)
35. Raw Power (Iggy and the Stooges)
36. American Beauty (Grateful Dead)
37. Van Halen (Van Halen)
38. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (David Bowie)
39. Off the Wall (Michael Jackson)
40. The Modern Lovers (The Modern Lovers)
41. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Devo)
42. Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
43. Quadrophenia (The Who)
44. Talking Heads: 77 (Talking Heads)
45. Transformer (Lou Reed)
46. Armed Forces (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
47. Saturday Night Fever (various artists)
48. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Derek and the Dominos)
49. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Bruce Springsteen)
50. Pink Moon (Nick Drake)

thanks to all who submitted. great lists! and as always, thanks to jack, who put in the sweat at the end. let's hear from you.

my quick thoughts:

-as with the top songs from 1950 list, I'm starting to think we're only going to see surprises once we get to the later decades. classic rock bleeds all over this list. crucial acts like john cale and the stooges get ignored or get one entry based on multiple great albums that cancel one another.

-once again, the lack of female presence is astounding (2.5 entries out of 50???), given the talent base. i'm the first to blame, patti smith only received honorable mention on my list. we did, again, have an overwhelming male voting

-3.5 on the color scale. "what's going on" being pretty much everyone's go to record.

-bizarre note ... metal almost completely excluded in the golden age of the genre??? sabbath is really the only true metal record on the list (maybe van halen). i know the community now embraces "raw power", but i'm not allowing that revisionism here, and zep IV is about as pussy a record as most southern cal crap from the era (not that there's anything wrong with that! boz scaggs made my list!!!).

-true 60s dinosaurs only accounted for 9 entries. i'm not including floyd in that category, cuz they emerged in the 70s as a different (and way less interesting) beast. i think, as we move into the 80s, when classic rockers began to put out truly terrible records, we'll see some more inspired choices. also, given the demographic of voters, many came of age in the 80s ... i think that's going to be an interesting list.

-one funny thing, the last entrant was able to knock "hotel california" off the list. kudos to k.c. in germany!

the man is black

2010-01-13T13:26:00.003-05:00

... on February 26, American/Lost Highway will release Johnny Cash's American VI: Ain't No Grave, the final volume in the series. February 26 would have been Cash's 78th birthday.

final??? i get the feelin rick rubin taped his last fuckin breath and will release that with bonus tracks next year

true story

2010-01-12T23:58:00.003-05:00

the first time i heard "love will tear us apart", i'd heard OF the song, but never actually listened to it. can't remember the location, but when i heard the chorus lyrics "love will tear us apart ... again", i instantly thought i was hearing the post-punk equivalent of "let's twist again", and wondered what the original song sounded like.

top 50 albums of the 70s

2010-01-12T00:31:00.000-05:00

wednesday! i promise. we had a late entry we couldn't refuse!!!

vic

2010-01-09T01:43:00.000-05:00

a beast ... just found this vid ... so fuckin sad

lordy

2010-01-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

shame the band flipper never had a cartoon

nuf sed

2009-12-28T00:41:00.004-05:00

while lydon and friends deserve mounds of crap thrown at them for their future transgressions, remember this. it ain't a mistake PiL made my list. the orig lineup was one of the best ideas ever. fuck the pistols, this is music.

out-kink this MFer!

2009-12-19T22:35:00.004-05:00

listening today to michael shelley's always excellent radio show on wfmu, he and fellow dj gaylord fields started discussing the leopards, a 70s band out of kansas city. they're notable mainly due to the fact that they sound remarkably like the late-60s/early-70s era kinks. i've since "acquired" both their '77 debut, "kansas city slickers" (moon records) and their '88 followup, "magic still exists" (voxx???). it's pretty mindblowing. the tone is there, the themes, lead singer dennis pash pulls the ray vocal off, and they manage the ultimate challenge-- the stealing of the riffs without actually stealing-- with ease. and they're pretty solid albums in their own right. worth checking.

which led me to a band i'd been meaning to mention for a while. chicago's green released an album in 1987 that ranks up there with any of the great records from that era. "elaine mackenzie", like the aforementioned records, owes it life blood to the davies, but what stuck me initially to the band was their sounding like the early pye singles and dragging the kinks oeuvre through it. leader jeff lescher's songwriting is so self-assured that when it hits the wrecklessness of the band (harmonies go everywhere!), it's pure fucking awesomeness. the first four tunes match pretty much any out of the box lineup that i've heard. dig this out of obscurity. i still have the goddamn tdk tape that was given to me with this on it.

sadly, outside of their followup single "REM" (haha) and the next pretty damn great LP "white soul", i don't own anything of theirs. that's a crime.

top 25 albums of the 70s (my mix)

2009-12-17T00:57:00.003-05:00

we're currently tabulating entries, by "we", of course, i mean jack. we'll be posting some of our regular contributors lists before the final tally. we start with mine.

GIHYB's top 25

1. lou reed, berlin (this is the one with "i love you suzanne", right?)
2. ramones, leave home (i ain't gonna argue albums 1 through 3 with you ... you ain't gonna win or lose. album 2 produced the pop overload.)
3. john lennon, plastic ono band (ends lennon's rarely acknowledged post-"white album" drought)
4. the rolling stones, exile on main street
5. bob dylan, blood on the tracks (peeps of mine know my allegiance to the unreleased nyc sessions of this record)
6. big star, sister lovers (4 wrist-slashers in the top 6. gotta check my meds ... or maybe get some)
7. new york dolls, new york dolls (i still have a jones for "too much too soon"'s sleazy sound, but song for song, this towers above)
8. television, marquee moon
9. the clash, the clash
10. public image ltd, metal box (technically, the proper LP version "second edition" came out in 1980, but, to me, this record ends the 70s)
11. iggy and the stooges, raw power (put this and funhouse on rotating wheel, blindfold me, and i'll still regret my choice for a week)
12. sex pistols, never mind the bollocks
13. the kinks, muswell hillbillies (not even in my kinks top 5, might give an inkling to the kinks awesomeness)
14. gang of four, entertainment (i even got off on the reunion bullshit re-record a couple years back!)
15. funkadelic, maggot brain
16. marvin gaye, what's goin on
17. velvet underground, loaded (not in my VU top 3, but, calendars work!)
18. lynyrd skynyrd, second helping (album 2 gave em the songs to fit the template)
19. michael jackson, off the wall (not the forum for the argument, but this blows "thriller" out of the water)
20. pere ubu, the modern dance (not their most interesting, but the most immediate. also, the one with laughner residue)
21. the heartbreakers, lamf
22. neil young, after the gold rush
23. big star, radio city (i initially wasn't going to put 2 records by any artist on the list, but while the ramones first three records resemble one another, big star's leap between albums 1 and 3 is a stark one-- and not the general leap in terms of talent)
24. curtis mayfield, superfly
25. boz scaggs, silk degrees (my defacto saturday morning housecleaning record. awesome tune after awesome tune)

my apologies to:

-any woman who released a record during the 1970s
-fleetwood mac, rumours
-patti smith, horses (there, that's settled)
-the ramones, rocket to russia
-the ramones, the ramones
-richard hell & the voidoids, blank generation
-the stooges, funhouse
-neu!, neu!
-john cale, paris 1919
-bob dylan and the band, the basement tapes
-willie nelson, stardust
-the rolling stones, some girls (too little, too late?)
-paul mccartney, ram
-a bazillion neil young records
-the who, live at leeds
-jimmy buffett, you had to be there (i've told this story often, i heard and saw buffett so often during my childhood, i thought he was a relative. i won a bet at a wedding in the late 90s by being able to recite jimmy lyrics)
-willie nelson, willie and family live (see previous entry)

random notes (ha!)

2009-12-16T00:33:00.002-05:00

the stooges finally made the rock and roll hall of fame ... won't even dignify that with a snide comment. my friend chris c. said it all with, "after madonna"

the final submissions are in for "GIHYB's greatest albums of the 1970s". a tally will be up soon ... that's a hint for at least 4 MFer's whose lists i have not received!!!! ... no names need to be presented matt, ada, drew, and kate!

and goddamnit, elliott smith rears his head again with an amazing unreleased song. just check out the pitchfork post.

jackson browne

2009-12-13T02:41:00.004-05:00

love/despise this guy.

but this song is incredible. and i like a bunch of his songs.

with that song

2009-12-12T21:09:00.003-05:00

in my estimation, two of the best arranged hit songs ever are the boxtops "the letter" and csny's "ohio". succinct and free of baggage. not the way it should always be, but their awesomeness is in their brevity.

check this interview from wayback with alex chilton.

hbo part 1

2009-12-07T22:06:00.002-05:00

thoughts on the hbo rnr hall of fame bullshit show #1. (also see my xmastime collab on show 2)

-stephen stills is a lost dude in the mix of major rock dudes. vocals a+ and his guitar playing is amazing--easily as good as neil. his brown goatee was a little much, at least give nash n cowardly lion a heads up on the dye job. holy shit! stills is incredible!!!

-metallica gets props for muscular sweet jane. lou's karaoke. dunno. hetfield actually trying! ok, lou was fine

-how come ozzy has better hair than my 3 year old does?

-metallica & ray davies??? best sense of humor ever backed by no sense of humor??? i suddenly remember that metallica's best album was "garage days revisted". kudos

-enter sandman backed by vids of mariano rivera??? own the song dudes. and i'm a yankees fan. i really hate metallica. but i do have to thank them for the funniest movie of all time.

-u2 good lord! patti smith and bruce!!!!! the edge plays a REAL SOLO during "because the night"!!!!!!! and then bruce kicks his ass!!!!!!!!! stick to soundshapes when onstage with the boss mr. edge!

-christ- jagger backed by u2. suck has a new definition. jagger is going through motions. he doesn't even realize u2 isn't giving him the stones backing. guess you call that a "PRO". he's in his own little mick world! i could hug him!

as many readers know, i ain't a bruce guy, but i gotta say, he towers above the crowd here. the dude is amazing. he's aged better than anyone, but that ain't the point. he's just on-- and it ain't going anywhere.

-star= bruce

hail to the thief

2009-12-02T17:50:00.003-05:00

here's a really interesting piece by a member of too much joy (i've heard the name, but have no idea who they are) about being an EX major label band trying to collect digital revenue earned since leaving the label. the author not only was in the band, but now works for an online distribution company.

So I was naively excited when I opened the envelope. And my answer was right there on the first page. In five years, our three albums earned us a grand total of…

$62.47

What the fuck?

I mean, we all know that major labels are supposed to be venal masters of hiding money from artists, but they’re also supposed to be good at it, right? This figure wasn’t insulting because it was so small, it was insulting because it was so stupid.

view as an updated companion piece to albini's legendary article about the bullshit major label system of finances and its outright disdain toward the artist. you couldn't make this shit up if you tried.

gibby hayne's quote put water through my nose.

nod to jimmy eight cats for the tip.

CK

2009-11-29T02:18:00.002-05:00

nod to joe g for the tip. just watch. oh yeah NSFW.

OMG

2009-11-28T01:49:00.002-05:00

wow, i forever (stupidly) shortchange this guy and then this. however, at the time, my fave single. listen to this vocal:

a trend that needs to disappear

2009-11-28T01:17:00.000-05:00

band reunions that feature replaying "classic albums"

i just saw a recent vid of the pixies on a late night show. they are currently on a tour featuring the totality of "doolittle", which i like just fine. a great rendition of 'debaser' occurred. i happened to see the pixies back in the day on the first ep tour as well as the trompe le monde tour, and i can happily say ... they've gotten alot better live.

is there any way to make the concert more unappealing than knowing exactly what's about to happen? hey, dvr?

required

2009-11-22T01:08:00.006-05:00

and the end's great post got me to thinkin about my own upbringing. my dad fed us a steady diet of snl, steve martin (actually took the family to see him in vegas), carlin, and the prize, richard pryor. won't get into racial & family politics here, but my dad knew funny, and pryor was beyond funny. i idolized this man. come to think of it, my 2 biggest heroes growing up were pryor and ali.

but i digress. i found this last night. unfuckingbelievable. i knew pryor had a short-lived show on nbc. vaguely remember it. don't know if i ever saw it. it was an ill-affair between pryor and the network, and only 4 episodes aired. the 4th, hosted by paul mooney, is wild. a take-off on the dean martin roasts, it features pryor (mostly silent) and his cast just going about the bizness of the roast. money shot= 3 of the cast are robin williams, sandra bernhard & tim reid. watch all 5 episodes, pryor starts in episode 4.

i'm in love

2009-11-18T11:04:00.006-05:00

... inneresting WFMU radio interview here with big star drummer (and xmastime BFF) jody stephens. some great stories b/w sometimes baffling lapses of thought-- bits of stephens anecdotal info seems to come purely from what he's read. he does finally provide a clue as to thought process behind the naming of the third record. anyhow, he's there supporting the exhaustive (and i'm not using that term lightly) big star box set collection "keep an eye on the sky", that GIHYB, the biggest big star fan ever, won't even buy (he's spent years and too much $$ accumulating it hisself already). no word whether it includes material from the truly dreadful reunion cd "in space" from a couple years back (well, the posies tracks were good). also on tap is a brooklyn performance by the band tonight at the masonic temple, which bizarrely, MS GIHYB will be attending sans life partner. if it's anywhere near as good as their '06 SXSW show, she won't be disappointed-- and ultimately, that's all that matters to me ... husband of the fucking year ...

VU

2009-11-17T23:58:00.002-05:00

this is kinda weird. a semi-reunion of the Velvets at the New York Public Library (no Cale, probably smart on his behalf, no Morrison-- no pulse). There's no music planned, just a discussion between the band and writer David Fricke. Reed and Tucker are present, but then they're really the only two who have remained civil ... the weirdness is that Doug Yule is going to be there. Doug of the final two records that wasn't included on the reunion tour-- and not being included in the hall of fame induction (who fucking cares). always felt bad for Yule. got a shitty hand dealt. was part of 2 great records. yeah, he's never making my all-time velvets line-up, but he did sing some classic VU (that lou wrote).

yes VA

2009-11-17T00:58:00.002-05:00

dylan kills! love it!

it's new to me

2009-11-15T02:48:00.003-05:00

grant hart, hot wax

this pains me. i just saw an amazing show by this guy a couple months ago, he is one of my favorite singers ever, and i LOVED his last record, but, new albums are NEW albums.

my quick review:

1 awesome. 60s garage. great singing, great keys. no husker overtones
2 cool. awkward sequencing. too long
3 worst mixing intro ever. awesome. classic hart. amazing singing.
4 classic pop ... just weird, and not good weird
5 more nova mob roman nonesense
6 kinda cool, but kinda cool like wings, cool sounds, but nothing there
7 like an outtake from an early 70s beach boys record ... like, not making the cut of an early 70s beach boys record, which wasn't easy
8 cool, but in the sense that grant could sing the phone book and that would be cool
9 his thank you friends (big star's third). sings his ass off. but too little too late

by song 3 i was getting lofty thoughts. after song 7, i was hitting that alex chilton "thanks, but not nearly recently" button

the pips

2009-11-15T01:18:00.004-05:00

growin up, i had a strange fixation with gladys knight & the pips. they seemed to be on every show constantly ... this was the era of the variety show. actually, it wasn't to gladys knight and the pips, it was the pips, and it wasn't the pips, it was this one guy in the pips. i'm not going to even try and figure out his name. it wasn't a sexual fixation, it was something along the lines of 'i kinda know you' (dude in the middle). anyways, i got over it i suppose, they stopped showin up on tv, and i stopped watchin.

anyways, michael shelley played this tune of just pips and funk bros on his WFMU show today and it's awesome (no knock on gladys-- midnight train is still one of my all-time faves)! i spend saturday morn's with the boy and we fire his most excellent show up every week.

for the love of god

2009-11-13T11:37:00.003-05:00

can we put a stop to this endless parade of old white guys. i know it's the super bowl, lowest common denominator and all that, but do we really need to hear baba o'reilly/won't get fooled again/who are you another time???? i'm struggling to come up with a less inspired choice. hmmm, is the game on cbs this year? maybe all the csi cast members can join on stage

... shame on me, who am i to pass up a piss break?

try me

2009-11-12T22:47:00.003-05:00

kickin myself for missing syl johnson's set at the music hall tomorrow night. resurrected by the eccentric soul series, he's on the road as part of their eccentric soul revue. this cut from '67 is tha bomb.

i don't feel like going into the whole eccentric soul thing now, but it's an amazing collection of records. try google.

wow

2009-11-10T00:54:00.001-05:00

this is crazy! eddy fronted the amazing equals and had a hit in the 80s. this, is genius.

the new list

2009-11-09T23:33:00.004-05:00

the mission:

to create a list of the best 25 albums of the 1970s.

why?:

in the tradition of the first godihateyourband list of the top 100 songs since 1950, we're now focusing on decades, starting with the 70s, cause frankly, after that initial 60s rout, i could care less about revolver vs. sgt. peppers. let's hit a decade when monster rockers started putting out CRAPPY records!

what?:

your list of the top 25 albums of the 1970s (1 being the best)

potential potholes:

a) aka, the "london calling quandary". the record dropped in britain in december 1979. US was in january 1980. use your best judgement. after many emails back and forth with the GIHYB braintrust, I've decided not to care. i mean, who releases a record in december???? fools!

b) compilations that include material from earlier decades. we're going to have to treat on a case by case basis. the sun sessions will be tough ... the red and the blue beatles albums will not be tough.

deadline:

monday, december 14

feel free to include comments with your selections, and pass on to anyone that isn't an idiot. submissions should be emailed to:

info@reeltoreelrecords.com

xoxo,

GIHYB

it's new to me

2009-11-09T22:45:00.004-05:00

the low anthem, oh my god, charlie darwin

apparently this album's over a year old. nonesuch rereleased it over the summer. i heard my now favorite song of the year (take that personal and the pizzas!) "horizon is a beltway" on some radio station last week. "horizon" is the kinda song that made the first marah record sound so great. that wedding of banjo & exile pomp, but with a more dustbowl mentality. like the aforementioned marah, there's a shitload of different instruments on here. the trio apparently switch about alot-- but it ain't in some grand fucking orchestration, it's just kinda there. and i kinda dig it. now, i hate to sound like a jarhead dummass, but the rockers on this record are fucking great. they stomp, they bang, they've got a strain of shane in em (not anything in an overt sense, but the attitude's appreciated). it's the goddamn slow songs that are the confusing ones-- and it ain't a small problem, well over half the record is slow. in fact, the leadoff (almost) title track "charlie darwin" is an excruciating 4:33 of that WAY overused indie falsetto bullshit. had i not heard "horizon" before, there's some doubt I would have continued. the slowers are about 50/50 ("to ohio" & "omgcd" are standouts), but all n all, check it.

this

2009-11-05T01:08:00.002-05:00

blows my mind that they played this (somewhat credibly) in '07, and forever trumps me in the ongoing beatles vs. stones argument w/ xmastime. check .... mate.

Lucky Three

2009-10-24T10:52:00.000-05:00

it's the end of the world ...

2009-10-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

if you really wanna go insane

2009-09-26T00:20:00.001-05:00

check out the live stuff here. it's mind-boggling.

it's new to me

2009-09-22T23:30:00.004-05:00

john doe and the sadies "country club"

i've been clamorin for doe to make a trad country album for years. X hinted at it, and the knitters opened the doors (fuck, bloodshot recs acknowledges "little critter" was the reason they started), but as great as they were, it always had a foot in kitsch. etc etc etc. the voice was there and the sentiment was almighty. so, why does this album not work?

in retrospect, his first solo record underwhelmed the hell outta me (saving graces were mainly X-ish). i've not really bothered with much of his others, save a song or 2 here and there.

i'll be honest, if he'd blown this set out kamikaze style during an encore, i'd still be talkin about it. & though the record gets better as it goes along, the lack of dirt kills. the sadies relatively staid numbering meets his smooth delivery at a steady plane, and that's not a good thing. inexplicably, there's little personality, which is weird after witnessing doe live multiple times (in multiple incarnations!), he's an engaging guy ... and then there's the matter of why he hit on so many well trod songs ... still clamorin.

lennon being ... lennon

2009-09-03T00:41:00.001-05:00

godifucking hate retracing these things, but this is kinda interesting

cocksucker blues

2009-08-21T00:21:00.006-05:00

the legendary unreleased movie. this might be the drowsiest & best vid ever. an attempt to show the band as they were (and it does). some filmed by themselves. stones circa "exile". only seen it once on blurry vhs. "don't look back" it ain't, and that's what's great. druggzzzzz. stones pulled release at the time. here it finally is.

Veuillez installer Flash Player pour lire la vidéo

The Rolling Stones - Cocksucker Blues Part 1 sélectionné dans Musique et Rock / Pop

this might

2009-08-19T23:28:00.001-05:00

be the funniest web series i've seen in a while. follow the trail.

file under: essential DC

2009-08-05T00:05:00.004-05:00

in college, our band had one hard rule, if we got to open for The Ramones and the Slickee Boys, we would immediately break up. we never got the Ramones nod, but we did play with the Slickees. just found out about this blog that has a link to mp3s from "here to stay", their initial LP collection of EPs & singles. wore this thing out. & it still rules ... they have other great records, but this one's the prize ... prowl on yer own dime ... or buy a copy on ebay for the big bucks.

xmastime is a dead man, miss him, miss him

2009-08-02T23:02:00.003-05:00

xmastime has not uploaded a post since thursday. the blog equivalent of me missing work for 47 straight days. i don't want to get everyone worried, but ... let's just be on tom ridge orange warning. sure he's safe. but, keep an eye out.

item 256 ... the stones are douchebags

2009-07-28T00:53:00.004-05:00

i'm sure i'm late to this ... like 50 years late, whatever ...maybe pay back the verve for (not) stealing your song, it was a sample of a cover of your song fuckwads. hell, the riff the stones came up with for this song is amazing, but c'mon, this is jimmy page territory.

a ghost to most

2009-07-22T23:54:00.003-05:00

i got no prob hearing ghostface rap over every sacred 70s r&b classic. i INVITE that. but this preview off his upcoming record is a bad omen. faux ribby and some dude autotuning his nuts off ain't welcoming. well intents aside, i know stevie, and you ... well, quayle.

vote aqui

2009-07-03T23:20:00.005-05:00

happy 4th! let's hear it for tha new world's best band. now put yr money where your loudmouth is. vote at left for the best ramones record and then leave a comment why. vote and be an american (or for you non-americans, pretend to be one).

tha shizzle

2009-06-26T01:47:00.000-05:00

MJ RIP

2009-06-25T22:24:00.005-05:00

i saw michael jackson when i was about 8 years old, with my dad, jackson 5 live at the richmond coliseum.

schools integrated late in VA. last in the nation as far as i know. i'll never forget the first day of school that year. we stood in the main auditorium of the school, a circular room surrounded by classrooms. white kids on one side, black kids on the other. we just stared at one another. the white kids were from the neighborhood, the black kids bused in an hour from the inner city. i remember the lead up, lots of adult conversation about the upcoming event, but we were kids, and i don't remember giving it too much thought. the year before, they had introduced some black teachers, so it wasn't a complete shock to most. i, unlike alot of my classmates, had actually known black people before. my grandparents employed a few in their business that i regularly saw and conversed with. wow, reading back over those last few sentences is pretty mind-boggling today, but this was the old south where black was black and white was white. i don't remember separate bathrooms and drinking fountains, but the axiom of black and white was ground into us from an early age, and it bugged the living shit out of me from time that i could remember. i can still hear things coming out of people's mouths that crushed me-- and some of those people are ones i'd have taken a bullet for. those were seeds that led me to question race, individuality, and ultimately the southern "thing" as a whole.

it was a funny time. the mix of the suburbs and the inner city was actually pretty uneventful. i don't recall animosity and i really don't remember thinking too much about it. we kinda kept to our own. marching in line with society.

michael jackson was my first rock star. i had the records, the posters, watched the cartoon, had the 'goin back to indiana' record and tv special memorized. he was this 8-10 year old's james brown.

about 2/3 of the way through the school year, the jackson 5 came to town. my dad took me. can still feel the excitement hangin in the nosebleeds watchin tito storm the stage w/ gtr in hand. was a magical moment when michael came out. 8 year me screaming. bout halfway through the show, a group of black kids approached us. i lost it, yelled to my dad, "these guys go to school with me!". they were flummoxed I was there, me likewise. my dad ended up emptying his wallet buying popcorn & sodas for everyone. we had a fucking blast. and next day at school, i ended up being the white dude who knew the black dudes.

i stopped in on michael over the years, but it was nostalgia for me at that point. "off the wall" was pretty great ... i still remember exactly where i was when he did the moonwalk ... i think "thriller" is WAY overrated ('billie jean' excluded) ... king of pop? whatever ... and the ghouly and creepy last decade + was ... well, just that.

mlps again??

2009-06-15T00:40:00.001-05:00

what i'm doin i ain't in my youth ...

2009-06-14T02:18:00.001-05:00

godihateyourmovie

2009-06-14T01:12:00.003-05:00

if you haven't seen the flick, it's prob lost on you. one of the greatest sequences ever:

grant hart live in new haven

2009-06-05T00:12:00.004-05:00

easel moment.

it's new to me

2009-06-01T23:40:00.003-05:00

the new york dolls, cause i sez so

how'd they get rundgren to produce again??? suppose the new cars are on hiatus (ed note: come back soon boys!). things roll quick with a couple a rockers. it's mainly the same mix as the pretty gr-ood "one day ...". again, it's the dolls through the david jo solo filter (thunders* wrecklessness supplanted by syl's prowess). it ain't always a bad thing, it's a different thing. look, the dude is one of the most underrated singers ever. he's fuckin levi stubbs ... he's fuckin levi strauss! & a hell of a songwriter, which tends to get in the way of the new new york dolls. he's throwin lots of chops around (as is syl) and it gets a little muddled (too many mid-tempo exercises ... i get it, but it don't always fit). rundgren kinda stays out of the way (which was a bit disconcerting???). but it's thought out, occasionally pissed, and frequently fun as shit to listen to. the coupla of bitchin girl group tracks ("better than" & "lonely so long") that the orig coulda rumbled with are pretty great, and that speaks. as i mentioned previously, i dig hearin this band hittin their last quarter, and "muddy bones" is worth any price of admission.

*for elvis is alive freaks, "exorcism of despair" has some creepy thunders-esque b/ups

o captain

2009-05-30T00:50:00.002-05:00

pretty cool beefheart bbc doc i'd never seen. for some reason, i can't add the vid.

mekons "memphis, egypt" one of my

2009-05-27T00:47:00.002-05:00

all time faves. jon langford (a god among men) told me he'd send me a cd copy ... still waitin on that jon? i've got a blog to run here!

jay bennett RIP

2009-05-25T23:41:00.002-05:00

sad. talented motherfucker. beyond all the reality shit that was that flick, he did orchestrate an amazing record (not to mention the others). dipshit even did a solid.

unfair character assasination of the day

2009-05-24T01:08:00.002-05:00

i've just watched "the making of the monkees". i love the monkees, pre-fab and post-fab. but the nesmith vs. kirshner stuff is beyond ridiculousness. you (nesmith) were hired as an actor to PLAY a rock guy. to get all incredulous after your FAKE band sold millions (playing other people's "amazing" songs) and demanding you get to do your own thing is silly. you're a) already rich*, so b) quit the damn show.

AND, your solo post-monkees stuff was great. so fuck everybody.

*mom invented white out

love it!

2009-05-18T23:02:00.004-05:00

from harry allen's blog

it's new to me

2009-05-06T00:04:00.002-05:00

bob dylan, together through life

there's enuff 'gettin ornery & squirrely & dealin' to qualify as an older gent (albeit a legend) givin his read on gettin older. but E-NOUGH? i don't think so. it sounds way more like an older gent playin songs he wants to play with his buds ... which he is more than entitled to (sounds alot like his radio show--WHICH I LOVE). there are cool highlights, "beyond here lies nothin" is primo snear late-bob. and yo, for you late period-dylan naysayers!!!, there's material galore ("life's hard" sounds like a kinda drunk dad doin karaoke at his 50th wedding anniversary ... bob's worst vocal ever???). BUT. i keep goin back to a somewhat similar record that i like alot better ... and it's not the truly great "time out of mind", it's the uneven but kinda awesome ny dolls reunion record from a couple of years back. johansen's gripping take on a glam band hittin 60 (check "maimed happiness" to start). just sounds to these ears like more of a biograph.

all i all ... this ain't any better than a dozen other americana records released this year or next ... and in the scheme of all things bob, that doesn't mean shit.

just hit the link

2009-04-28T00:07:00.001-05:00

nod to tinsel & rot. hank ii remains the bodufus.

45 du jour

2009-04-19T01:22:00.007-05:00

the worst band name in history notwithstanding (i won't even repeat for fear of no one checking out the link), & maybe the joke's on me, but "i don't feel so happy now" is my song of the year so far. nod to terre t for turning me on to it. hayday (on yet another extended hiatus) and the battlecats (somewhere out there) are officially on warning. get your guitars together.

beat the devil (again)

2009-04-01T00:29:00.004-05:00

the bastards who broke up this great band when they were juss gettin started (i have no idea who, so i'm blamin em all) have finally released the idiot's guide record they were workin on when they mattered. AND they just sent out a SCARY email sayin it wouldn't be available for long. yeah, you know, rehab is for quitters and all that.

GIHYB rates it a BUY

required viewing

2009-03-29T01:01:00.002-05:00

making of the funniest show in "four fuckin years". love the fact that they have NO baseball background.

The Making of Eastbound and Down - watch more funny videos

geeks only

2009-03-29T00:43:00.000-05:00

to the rambler

2009-03-26T01:00:00.001-05:00

best of luck on the west coast. before yr exit. best nyc records?

the avett brothers

2009-03-25T00:15:00.003-05:00

heard alot about these guys, read alot, dude i work with (who has taste) TRAVELS to see them. i've heard one album, "Mignonette". i cannot stand this band. alt-country/dummass lyrics/wow banjo. am i missing something beyond, "i can sing along"? give me a reason ... and be succinct with yer answer (i don't wanna listen to this again).

fuckit

2009-03-24T00:49:00.001-05:00

who doesn't neded a great strummer song?

spare change

2009-03-23T23:48:00.003-05:00

easily, the coolest thing i've seen in a while.

jason & the scorchers

2009-03-23T00:32:00.002-05:00

the gtr player still bugs the shit outta me (lineage beside the point), but the show i saw the guys play in richmond, va (rockitz) is still one of the best i ever saw.

all apologies

2009-03-13T00:45:00.001-05:00

to cale, morrison and tucker

holy fuckin shit x50 ... 17 minutes!!!!!!

http://www.viddler.com/explore/Penda/videos/99/