“Damn The Torpedos” was one thing… but the album after that, and the one after that… we got into the 80s and there was nobody – metalheads, punks, New Wavers, “old folks” – who didn’t like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. You and your buddies got into your car one night, you put in “Long …
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I’m sure that an editor or two – and possibly a few peeps – might be curious as to my thoughts on Hugh Hefner’s passing. And so, on a borrowed laptop while on vacation, here goes: One has to be of a certain age, startlingly enough, to realize the influence of Hefner’s Playboy magazine in …
My Facebook friend Sharry Debolt (nee Konopski) left this earth August 25 after a long battle with lung cancer. She was a really nice, cool gal who said very lovely things to me before and after my wife died last year. Though we had little in common besides cancer and living in the same state, …
[Ed. Note – The author first penned these words on August 24, 2013] It’s so mindblowingly remarkable how our American society survives by avoiding realities. The middle class, the poor… will give another dollar for a problem to go away for another week. “Mister, we don’t want any trouble.” “Here, take it, it’s all I …
This last quarter of the season – depending on where you live – when you’re really trying to make every day without rain and cold count. No wonder so many yearn for the “Endless Summer.” As an aside, I remember the first time I went to a Southern California beach – Zuma, Malibu. Driving thru …
When I hear this song, I can smell the 80s. I can taste it. You can cut the wistfulness with a butter knife; the Beatles of my generation. Now I know why my mom would get so “weird” when a particular Roy Orbison or Everly Brothers song would come on the stereo. – Steve Stav
Just talking to a friend about seeing “Dunkirk” tomorrow night. “Reserved seats,” he says. Maybe $18, he says. Is there going to be a merch table, I wonder, where I can purchase a tour t-shirt, maybe a sticker. Take solace in this fact, my friends: Life will never be better than it is right now. …
Stuart Adamson of Big Country, Skids fame. Avid Scottish football and British motorcycling supporter. Notorious depressive and alcoholic who wound up hanging himself in a hotel room, for the maid to find. Met the legend backstage when I was 25 and not yet a notorious journalist. Had trouble finding words, at first. He’s asking ME …
I’ve known a lot of “solo artists” over the years… people that used to be in bands, or musicians who were too cheap to split the take 4-5 ways in the first place. Oh, and they moan how hard it is. They complain about airplay, how their records don’t find enough audiences. They fail to …
You know that scene in “The Fly” where Goldblum is experimenting with steak, and has Geena taste a sample of teleported meat? “Not right?” I feel that way about a lot of modern electronica in music. I would’ve thought that with the advent of PCs with keyboards/ MIDI gear essentially replacing banks of synthesizers, new …
My one regret this season is to only have been able to put on the suit once… twice, if you count putting it on for my nephew, for this photo. A couple of years ago, a friend gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, buying a suit and asking me to play Santa for an …
The thing about Orbison is he had the enormous stones it takes to be different, and succeed. He dared to be his own performer, he had the guts to display deep, dark vulnerability in his songs. Not “My dog died and my baby left me, pour me another beer” – more like, “My baby left …
In the Washington Post – Minnie Minoso, White Sox and Baseball Icon, dies; President Obama joins in tributes I have, surprisingly enough, a great Minnie Minoso story. There was a time when you could, theoretically, get an autograph from a major leaguer simply by writing to him. It seemed to work about 25 percent of …
El Rey’s Miami Vice marathon continues… of course, Vice and Phil Collins are eternally linked, from the very first episode. I don’t know too many people who care for Phil anymore, especially amongst my musician friends. I know, I know, he (and Genesis) wound up spreading the cheese pretty thick. I know, I know, Phil’s …
She’s demonstrated her Siren’s call on two forays into Europe in recent years, but Portland chanteuse Sara Jackson-Holman has never toured the USA. Until now, that is. A six week jaunt of the west and midwest begins Nov. 28 in Bellingham, Wash. She’s supporting both Portland’-based band Horse Feathers and her summer-released River Queen EP …
With the World Series underway, I should add one more push to the notion of eliminating the Cleveland Indians’ “Chief Wahoo” logo. Polls in Ohio have shown a majority of fans have no objection to this caricature – and many of those who do admit its obvious racism still stamp their approval with the excuse …
Random thoughts at the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, from a husband of someone with Stage IV breast cancer: 1. There are no losers in the “battle;” some just run out of time. 2. There are an awful lot of people with breast cancer out there, women (and men), who have go through this …
I was recently talking to a friend about our mutual love of Pez… I’ve got a drawer full of Pez, mostly unopened with the two packs of little sugar tablets that will never expire… I loved Pez as a kid, and my mom would often bring home one that she thought I’d like. I got …
To borrow from Steven Tyler (or Gene Autry), Trentalange is back in the saddle again, after a four-year semi-hiatus from recording and performing — and the wait will be worth it, trust me. Her new album is due on shelves Jan. 28. Often twisting the knob a quarter-turn from the darkly tinted atmosphere of previous …
A bright beam swept the night skies of Britain’s East Anglia for decades, looming large in genius-musician Thomas Dolby’s memories of childhood. It was doomed to darken, it’s supporting tower about to literally crumble into a sea that will eventually claim Dolby’s ancestral land, as well. This poignant aspect of Dolby’s homecoming — after spending …
Generally speaking, I don’t feed the cats. It works like this: The cats come to me, and I, the Dr. Doolittle of the house, relay the message to their mom. I didn’t have human children for numerous reasons; I’m not about to have a couple of furry felines dictate my schedule in a sadly dog-free …
I remember driving around with a good friend in her old VW bug, in the summer evenings after work. She had broken up with her longtime boyfriend, I wasn’t seeing anyone… just bored. And feeling left behind. Everyone was elsewhere. Very little money, and we were already too well-trained by our upbringing to figure out …
Video premiere: Sara Jackson-Holman’s ‘Freight Train’ in USA Today – http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/05/16/freight-train-sara-jackson-holman-video-greys-anatomy/2173893/ For someone untrained in the sweet science, Portland’s Sara Jackson-Holman sure knows how to land a one-two punch. Thursday morning, USA Today‘s website debuted the video for Jackson-Holman’s breathtaking new single, “Freight Train;” that evening, the song was featured in Grey’s Anatomy’s season finale. …
Rock and roll. Every time I’ve seen Cheap Trick, they played as if they invented it. Most exciting band in the world. – Steve Stav http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qojUFE7ZkI8
The old phrase, “… and the plot thickens,” isn’t quite adequate to describe the episode-by-episode tension-building of Jane Campion’s new mystery miniseries, Top Of The Lake. The 7-parter, now airing on the Sundance Channel, follows a police detective (Mad Men‘s Elisabeth Moss) who returns to her rugged hometown and finds herself leading an investigation into …
A lot comes along between one’s early twenties and the midst of “thirtysomething” — careers, wives, children — but the spark of youthful, musical chemistry doesn’t always diminish over time. Some fourteen years and six albums after Left Hand Smoke made their first Seatown splash as local-radio darlings, the band certainly still has “It.” Through …
“I have heard the big music, and I will never be the same.” Understatement of the decade. I was just saying the other day… one of the great things about being young in the 1980s is that it seemed that every week you’d hear something new and wonderful that you’d never heard before. The Waterboys’ …
Classically trained pianist. Introspective singer-songwriter. Soul-pop tour de force. And now, mermaid. Portland’s Sara Jackson-Holman keeps revealing more facets as she introduces her latest album, Cardiology, to the world. Playing a fin-footed Siren in the new video for her single, “For Albert,” wasn’t an exercise in revelation, however; the supremely photogenic singer says the shoot …
Disgraced doper-cyclist Lance Armstrong begins his comeback attempt tonight, as he talks to Oprah Winfrey. Reportedly confesses to Oprah Winfrey that he cycled drugs through his blood in an elaborate international cheating scheme that would make rebuilding Steve Austin seem like a mundane affair, by comparison. Perhaps Lance – coached by a small army of …
It is too bad that Big Country weren’t nearly as successful at bringing working-class passion and romance across the pond as U2 was. Like the Jam, perhaps too English/Scottish/Irish. It’s a wonder the Pogues or the Clash made any headway here. It’s always remarkable, I find, to watch video of a big drunken crowd pogo-ing …