Starting today Alicia Dara will be tweeting 100 awesome songs in 100 days. “It’s taken months,” she says, “to assemble the list, but these are the ones I don’t want to live on earth without!!” You can follow her on Twitter @thevolcanodiary and the hash tag for the whole project, in which many people are …
This is so Portland (see Portland Bike routes, Portland sustainability). The Argentinian bamboo bicycle. I want one. The web page is in Spanish, but here is the Google translation of some the company’s descriptive language about their bamboo bicycle. (Say “bamboo bicycle” out loud. It’s fun to say, isn’t it? Well, the Spanish, “Bambubicicleta,” is …
Saturday night, March third, I ventured to The Funhouse for the first time to see Guttermouth, the So. Cal punk band I also was seeing for the first time. The Funhouse is a cozy little club sitting in the shadow of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle. This is are Seattle’s foremost punk club. When I arrived, …
I kinda got off the Springsteen bandwagon back around Born in the USA [with the exception of The Seeger Sessions]. The new record, Wrecking Ball, is pretty good. It has flashes of the old stuff, the soul that we heard on The River and even Greetings from Asbury Park. The production isn’t as stripped down …
The esteemed Mr. Mason painted on the moustache so we’d know he wasn’t serious. It’s the 50s version of air quotes:
I wrote this song because I love Chicago. Casimir Pulaski Day has always been a great Illinois holiday. When we were growing up we got a day off from school. Now we get a day off from work which turns into a great 3 day weekend which reminds us that summer is just around the …
This debuted during the Bruins-Rangers game today… very moved by it. If you don’t know who Brendan Burke was, I highly recommend his Wikipedia entry. http://www.broadstreethockey.com/2012/3/3/2842761/you-can-play-gay-rights-hockey-philadelphia-flyers – Steve Stav
I was sorry to hear that Ronnie Montrose lost his battle with cancer. Saw him at least twice with this band and once as a solo artist right after he’d released the album with the great instrumental version of “Town Without Pity” on it (he was opening for “Terrible” Ted Nugent and Rex Smith‘s “metal” …
The photos below were taken September 1987 at the Puyallup Fair, Puyallup, WA. All photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved. Here is an excerpt from an excellent essay about the enduring appeal of the Monkees, by Rich Horton: “There was a time in the mid-’60s, roughly following the releases of “Rubber Soul” and …
http://youtu.be/8YgyU5yFwR8
Just when I figured I’d heard all the really good Postpunk bands in the world (after 32 years of incessant digging!), and whilst searching for some discographical info re: a rare Italian/Austrian Velvet Underground-related cd ep I own called “b.v. Before Velvet”, I came across this impressive, heretofore never-heard-of-by-me band from Denmark, with the happily Ein …
Our upcoming record, “A Little Love,” is a collection of covers of songs we heart. We recorded Daydream Believer because we dig the tune and, of course, The Monkees. Needless to say we didn’t plan for it to be a tribute to Davy Jones, but his passing has inspired us to upload a video dedicated …
“[March 1] Justin Bieber’s birthday; banks are open. Post Office delivering but Middle Schools all closed.” – Jan Erickson http://youtu.be/vkSmjkI50ew
“While Hollis Brown, a band, not a man, is from New York City, their sound is not. Here the guys in the group talk about why music is important to them and why their songs are influenced by Southern music.” – Youtube description for above video. Hollis Brown will release the bluesy Ameri-trad EP “Nothing …
Davy Jones, the diminutive “cute one” of The Monkees, has died. He was 66. There was a time in the mid-’60s, roughly following the releases of “Rubber Soul” and “Pet Sounds,” when the rock audience grew up. Or, at least, we thought we had. In any event, we became rock-snobs and started looking down our …
From MSNBC: “Singer Davy Jones of The Monkees has died of a heart attack at 66, the medical examiner’s office in Martin County, Fla., has confirmed to NBC News. A statement issued by the medical examiner’s office says that Jones complained Wednesday morning that he wasn’t feeling well and was having trouble breathing. He was …
This, I think, would have to qualify as one of those elusive “perfect records,” at least insomuch as many have tried to make it better and I don’t think anyone has. I first heard this song on the jukebox at Loree’s Restaurant, which used to be on the corner of Foster and Sawyer in Chicago, …
Of the galaxy of stars at Chess Records, the grandmaster of them all was Rev. C.L. Franklin, pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Clarence LaVaughn Franklin (1915-84) was one of the greatest black ministers of the post-war era, a civil rights activist, and a friend of Martin Luther King. Many consider …
It’s Hard, impossible really, to cover “Baba O’Riley.” The original will always dominate the listener’s earmagination. There are four versions of which Iam aware, Pearl Jam, The Picketts, Blue Man Group and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcfHjNTRSho&feature=share
When we were getting ready to do a session and record the soundtrack for the “The Girl I Married” episode of The Twilight Zone (below) which would air July 17, 1987, legendary rock guitarist John Cipollina and I were in the hallway at the coffee machine. John waited until I’d gotten through making up my …
I love old postcards. They seem to capture history, the way it was really lived by ordinary people, in ways textbooks cannot. Here is a scan of the picture side of a postcard I found yesterday at a collectible store in town. It’s a scene of Chicagoans riding on horse-drawn carriages along Lake Shore Drive …
An organization called Organizing Against the War On Women has recently formed in protest of all the legislation being introduced and passed to restrict women’s access to birth control, from having a legal abortion, and mandating invasive medical procedures for any woman seeking an abortion. Women all over the country have had enough of a …
Steve Stav has an excellent interview with Gary Oldman here.
I met with The Joy Formidable this past December prior to their last show of the year at the Vogue Theater in the Broad Ripple, Indiana. With my better half in tow, Pam and I sat down to a lengthy discussion with a band on what has been a very long and successful year for …
Facebook is so strange, when you stop and think — so unlike anything we knew in pre-FB life. I’ve been trying to come up with an analogy for social networking, if it were a “real” thing. How’s this? You decide to send out invitations to every person you’ve ever known to a huge party. The …