The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up

This tune gets better as the years go by. The title is misleading, “Surf’s Up” generally means, “The swells have begun, the waves are cresting, let’s get out there…” but in this song the title is to mean, “Surf’s up, time’s up, the California dream is over,” and the music, the lyrics and the harmonies …

Mudhoney, Thee Emergency, Lovesick Empire: A Night at Neumos On Seattle’s Happenin’ Capitol Hill, By Holly Homan

Originally I planned to see two legendary Seattle bands at Neumos, The Fastbacks and Mudhoney, but The Fastbacks cancelled so I saw just Mudhoney. When I arrived, the opener, Love Sick Empire, were in full swing. Front woman Alicia Amiri has an intense stage presence and gutsy pipes making her sound like a cross between …

Pearl Jam – Last Kiss

A disaster of this magnitude should have been predicted in the quatrains of Nostradamus. Sonic leviathan, Pearl Jam, the greatest band ever named for neck-borne ejaculate, dipped into early sixties pop for “Last Kiss.” Written by Wayne Cochran about an actual Georgia car crash and popularized by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers in 1964, …

Rodin, Rotten, Jones & Us – Chapter 48 – By Holly Homan

Chapter Forty-Eight The guitar’s neck was broken clean off. “What have those incompetent arseholes done?” Keith screamed. “Fuckin’ aye!” Ryan echoed. “Why now?” “I need to be on stage at one of the biggest festivals in the world and these imbeciles destroy my guitar!” I noticed the others inspecting their instruments, which thankfully were unscathed. …