Starz reissues

Cool 70s rocker news this weekend -
Rykodisk is reissuing all four classic vinyl LPs from 70s arena rockers Starz. The reissues will include bonus tracks, additional artwork and 8 to 12 page booklets containing photos and complete band history.



Starz (1976-1980) was a NY/NJ arena rock band that wrote catchy rockers, with great vocals and melodies and excellent guitar riffs. And they toured the Midwest and East Coast alot, backing up Nugent, Aeorsmith, Rush, Kiss and others, but never q-u-i-t-e breaking out in a major national way. The 80s LA glam rockers (Poison, the Crue, et al) props them up, but usually to deaf ears.

I saw one of last year's reunion shows and Starz still rocks. (Hey, Matt Pinhead and I were rockin' out up front, if that means anything...), but I'm different now..."and I'm glad that you're my girl."

It Takes a Nation

WAY late in mentioning this for tonight, but music bigwigs like Robert Christgau, Nelson George, Vivien Goldman, John Leland and Alan Light drop in on NYU to rust up the rachet on Public Enemy's landmark It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

Tomorrow night is a look at Hip-Hop and political activism, certainly not as much fun as tonight's schedule. But cool photog Glen E. Friedman is on hand to wax hard. Remember, he's the guy who brought dissent to the WTC site.

In case you missed it earlier at Large Hearted Boy, you get another chance here to read an excellent review of how music is changing in Seattle and across the global music landscape because of new digital technologies and massive retail distribution. Fascinating read for anyone who cares about the state of modern music.

Is anyone else wondering when Travelers Diagram will start posting again?

Go!

YES! Thanks to Coolfer, you can now hear most (all?) of the Go Team's Thunder, Lightning, Strike CD(as yet unreleased in the U.S.)...

And is it time for the new Spring In yet?

And in today's rock history lesson....


TV21 was a Scottish postpunk band who put out a fantastic LP called A Thin Red Line in 1981. Simply great songs, well played, with drama and tension, and excellent instrumentation. You can get a sense by watching their sole TV appearance on England's Old Grey Whistle Test or listening to some unearthed demos at the TV21 unofficial site.

And if anyone can make me an MP3 copy of this great LP, I'd be glad to walk my vinyl copy of it over one day...

Don't Believe a Word

By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news.
- Fascinating piece in Sunday's NY Times about how the White House is covertly subverting what we see and hear on daily news broadcasts.

And this profile of a hard-charging PR guy is almost the flipside of the story above.

SxSW 2005 preview

Coming up in about three weeks is the 18th annual South by Southwest music festival in Austin, TX. It's now such a mega music/film fest that it's safe to say organizers have far succeeded their original goals of setting up an indie music fest.

The festival now plays host to nearly 1,300 showcase acts. More than 150 acts from Austin are scheduled, with another 80 bands from LA, and 72 bands listed as from New York (including Elvis Costello and the Imposters?? huh?). Add another 50 bands from Brooklyn, and this city's musical boiling pot is truly well represented in Austin this year. Compare these numbers to 41 bands from Chicago, 37 bands from London and almost 30 from San Francisco.

Pick a band, hear a sample tune. That'll keep you busy all day, bud.

The fest's huge importance in the music world means more and more veteran artists are using SxSW to relaunch careers. Notable this year is 1977 punk veteran Billy Idol, who's releasing a new CD a week later featuring longtime guitar collaborator Steve Stevens.

Quickies

Am I hallucinating, or is the next(?) full CD by Robert Pollard already being reviewed online with HIS permission(!) even if it's only been available through GBV-related message boards?

Nice piece on P2P radio over the Net in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

Read a profile of Uncle Grambo.

Find tracks here from the forthcoming (3/22) Queens of the Stone Age release "Lullabies to Paralyze."

Step-by-step program to lift A LOT of music from Napster. Legally. I guess.

Sunshine at The Gates

The largest gathering of digital camera users in the history of mankind was at Central Park yesterday afternoon, I swear. I counted. EVERYONE had cameras of some sort. Me too. And it was truly thrilling to be in the midst of The Gates on such a gorgeous springlike day. If you haven't gone, go soon. The amazing splashes of color throughout the park will lift your spirits in wondrous ways. More pictures at my photostream.

I don't know the Kaiser Chiefs, but I read they're playing with Franz Ferdinand in early April and their song is on Radio 1.

There's some cool pics of their recent Mercury Lounge show up at Brooklyn Vegan.

Today may be the day for our ladies, but it's still a chore for us guys. Let's look forward to a day for us guys in a month's time.

Rock Fun

Wow! Did anyone catch Ted Leo late Friday night on Conan? The band s-m-o-k-e-d on Little Dawn from Shake the Sheets. And I thought they'd play Me & Mia. I was happily proved wrong.

Had a great Friday night of rock and roll. I sang and played well at the IC Presents show, and it was great to see pals again. All the new songs were great to get off my chest, and everyone seemed to dig my New Order cover.

Champion Collision was a mighty tight trio, with sounds ranging from Husker Du to Wire. Loud and chaotic. But the highlight for me was the absolute muscular, arena-rock anthems of Hoy. Greg Hoy and his trio just slammed through their set, playing in front of the 75 folks or so as if they numbered 10,000. I'm a fan. See Hoy next Friday night at The Delancey. Rock!

And then Tim and I ventured into the wild world of Tommy's Tavern for a show with The Isles and The Octagon. I know Zack from The Octagon from the GBV crowd, and it's always cool to see him rock out live. His new songs are frantic and fun. Johnny on guitar is a terrific foil. The Isles won us over with their very catchy songs, textures, grooves and more. See them if you get a chance.

We Walk...the Gates

"This project is not involving talk. It's a real, physical space. It's not necessary to talk.
You spend time, you experience the project." -- Christo


photo from Gothamist

Have fun this weekend walking the Gates in Central Park.
But don't talk about it. Just feeeeeeel it, man....

Actor/singer/raconteur/studmonster Vincent Gallo is curating this spring's UK All Tomorrow's Parties festival. You decide if this is a good thing or not. I notice some old school NYC names he's likely known for years - James Chance, Lydia Lunch, Suicide....

More old school 1997 Gallo interview material here.

And dig this? At Carnegie Hall the other night for the Tibetan benefit, Ray Davies played five songs from The Kink's 1968 LP The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society: "The Village Green," "Picture Book," "Animal Farm," "Do You Remember Walter?" and "Johnny Thunder."

Make Music, Not Mayhem

Yesterday's NY Times Circuits section had this short piece about the Jampod, a nifty lil device that you hook to your iPod and then plug your guitar into, letting you rock out to your favorite iPod songs. Cool, eh?

Last night, I got my first taste of recording with Garageband, the Mac recording program. Kinda cool, when you get the hang of it. With my Mac daddy buddy, I recorded and mixed one of my songs with a preprogrammed drumbeat in about 2 hours. I'll throw it up on one of my music sites sometime next week.

While I'm playing my psuedo Ted Leo-inspired righteous rock early Friday evening at Galapagos, Ted Leo and his band will be rockin' Conan O'Brien's hair off. Ted tapes Friday evening, shown after midnight Friday night.

Visit this Place - A fond memory:



On Saturday Feb 12, 1999 -- six years ago this weekend --the Sunfish Holy Bobfest, a tribute to Robert Pollard and his music, took place in Hell's Kitchen, NYC.
A fantastic rock & roll party, hosted by our NYC GBV-Postal Blowfish crew and featuring many wonderful indie bands, along with the finest performance of the Greg Brady Vanguard, the ultimate Guided by Voice cover band.

Ash Wednesday, Day of Ashes, 40 days before Good Friday. I'm not Catholic, but I once was. Ashen forehead. Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie.

Also, on this day in 1964, The Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Wow! Marshall Crenshaw plays a free show this Thursday night at the always fun Rodeo Bar on 3rd. Ave. Sponsored by Maker's Mark!

One Louder takes David Fricke to task for his 2004 LP choices.
I'll do the same. Yikes! His age must kicking in, obvs.

And this track Run Linda Run from the Deep Throat Anthology Parts I & II music CD might be the coolest thing I've heard all week, with or without its visual context...(via Pitchfork)

Beatles Bunk-Up

Get the scoop on the Beatles Butcher cover, one of rock's most infamous album covers of all time.

And a copy can be yours for a mere $18,000.

Follow the history of Black Flag, year by year. Fliers, gigs and more. Cool stuff.

Thanks to Brooklyn Vegan for pointing out this KCRW radio interview with Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman) on the eve of DVD release of Pee Wee's Playhouse, the crazy fun kids/adults TV show that aired for five seasons during the 1980s.

Originally conducted in December '04 on the eve of the DVD release, the interview finds Reubens in thoughtful, articulate and humorous mood throughout the entire interview (conducted by Elvis Mitchell). Well worth a listen. (And I can't wait to pick up the DVDs as the colors are probably fantastic to see.)

Macca Rules

Some quips from MSNBC's Michael Ventre on Paul McCartney's halftime appearance at the Super Bowl:
- "McCartney doesn’t seem to be lip-synching. Why is it a rocker in his 60s can sing live during a stadium show, but Ashlee Simpson had to fake it in front of a studio audience at “Saturday Night Live”? Could it be because he has … TALENT?!"
- "Nobody is upset that McCartney is doing his old stuff. ALL his stuff is old stuff."
- "McCartney sings, “Hey Jude,” and afterward shouts, “Thank you, Super Bowl!” Note to Paul: The Super Bowl is not human."

The NY Times weighs in on Macca as well.

Or was it all a conservative dream, and did Paul really get all political about land mine use and even pull out his, um, thingy to make a shock point? You decide.

One Day a Week

Excellent photos from this past week's Arcade Fire shows in NYC. Well done, Kathryn.

Introducing the most amazing guitar solo EVER! I kid you not.

Click here to learn more about the Double Guitar and its creator Michael Angelo.


Originally called "the cheating game" on Mississippi riverboats in the early 1800s, the card game of poker is now nearly America's favorite TV pastime! Read more here about the early history of poker and some of its more famous players.

Or jump right into the action here.

Bob Mould says he's in NYC today, helping Interpol on a remix of their song Length of Love.

Meanwhile, Grant Hart is playing the Turf Club in St. Paul this Saturday.

And Greg Norton runs his restaurant in Bay City, Wisconsin. Overview here.

There will not be a Husker Du reunion.

The Strongest Man Alive

Today is a day devoted to indie pop stud Graham Smith and his former band Kleenex Girl Wonder.


I was a big KGW fan in the late 90s. My old band APW opened a 1999 show for KGW in Chicago, and I even wrote a review of a 2002 KGW Brownies' show. I loved his hooks and humor, and delighted in his bravado. My admiration has waned recently after seeing a few downer Graham-on-solo-acoustic shows, but his pop smarts are still intact on his last two CD releases After Mathematics and Final Battle, both solidly structured pop efforts.

But to hear the skewered pop talents Smith showed in the mid-1990s, download some of Kleenex Girl Wonder's out-of-print mid-1990s material. First stop should definitely be Graham Smith is the Coolest Person Alive. This excellent CD starts with the fast jangle stomp of The Bostonians, and every song following is a fantastic kick. Do it! After that, check out Sexual Harassment and then Long Live the Pelican Express. All cool stuff from a good songwriter.

See Graham Smith play live March 12, 2005, Saturday, Galaxy Hut, Arlington, VA.

Shorties

Need your Tom Waits fix without the Tom Waits? Try Jon Dee Graham!


The inimitable Robert Pollard continues to amaze with relentless musical hucksterism.

A short history of Ken Kesey. And you can also follow along on your LSD timeline.

The great 1979 popwave LP Big City Rock by The Atlantics still gets a lot of spins in my apt.

Dig The Tammys! Their big girl doo-wop sound is described here as "From traditional doo-wop, to sweet girlish wails, to rough grunts and barks, the Tammys were unlike anything around at the time."

And the Kings of Leon can't believe their good fortune! (hint: they're the opening band on the U2 Vertigo tour!)