Nothing Changes on New Year's Day

"Nothing Changes on New Year's Day" - this time, let's hope it does. Peace.

Former Birthday Party guitarist Rowland Howard dead of cancer

Sad end-of-year news for post-punk fans - apparently, guitarist Rowland Howard is dead of cancer. Here's what I read today:

"Australia’s music scene has lost a true icon with the reported passing of Rowland S Howard today (December 30). While no official statement has been made by management, close friends of the guitarist have confirmed reports that he lost his ongoing battle with liver cancer at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital this morning…Howard, 50, was a former member of the Young Charlatans, The Boys Next Door (who later morphed into The Birthday Party) and These Immortal Souls.

Rowland S. Howard – the guitarist in Nick Cave’s cult punk-era bands The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party – died yesterday at the Austin Hospital from liver cancer. He was 50. Howard wrote the 1979 cult hit Shivers for The Boys Next Door. He then played with Cave in The Birthday Party until the influential band split in 1983 amid turmoil and drug abuse.

Long-time friend and Birthday Party bandmate Mick Harvey, who played drums on Howard’s newest, critically acclaimed solo album Pop Crimes, said Howard did not want to die. ’‘Sometimes people are ready to go because they have been sick for a long time, but Rowland really wanted to live. ’‘Things were going well for him outside of his health and he wanted to take advantage of that and he was very disappointed that he wasn’t well enough to do so.’"

More from LA Weekly blog.

Watch the Birthday Party "Release the Bats"

ATP photos (Tim Bugbee)

Classy rock photog Tim Bugbee took a awesrome rock pics at this year's All Tomorrow's Parties festival - and you can see the lot at his link here.

See The Octagon on tour in January

NYC indie rock band (and pals) The Octagon are going to play a few weeks of shows on the road to promote the sixteen songs to make up its new CD “Warm Love and Cool Dreams Forever.”

From the release:
"Instead of going into a recording studio, the Octagon retreated to their dimly lit practice space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and, under the lo-fi recording expertise of drummer/producer/engineer Will Glass, spent three days laying down thirty tunes to analog cassette tape on two Tascam 4-track recorders. The tunes are poppy, and the energy punky; the band blends their gift for penning simple, catchy melodies with a tendency towards noise and sonic/structural experimentation – the reinvention of the pop framework to make it something unmistakably their own."

(Me? I'm likin' Crosstops and Clew Haywood alot).

You can stream or buy the whole lot below.


See the band live in the East and Midwest over the next few frostbitten weeks!
Jan. 5 Philadelphia, PA The Fire
Jan. 6 Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
Jan. 7 Washington, DC Black Cat w/Capstan Shafts
Jan. 8 Charlottesville, VA The Southern
Jan. 9 Richmond, VA Plaza Bowl
Jan. 10 Asheville, NC Bobo Gallery
Jan. 11 Knoxville, TN Pilot Light
Jan. 12 Nashville, TN The Basement
Jan. 13 Little Rock, AR Whitewater Tavern
Jan. 14 St. Louis, MO Antarctica
Jan. 15 Champaign, IL Mike and Molly's
Jan. 16 Chicago, IL Elbo Room
Jan. 17 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern w/Rural Alberta Advantage
Jan. 18 Columbus, OH Carabar
Jan. 22 Brooklyn, NY Briar Falls: album release party w/Hexa, Doug Gillard (GBV)

NME still misses The Strokes (do we all?)

I missed this in the Christmas run-up, but it's worth taking note about NME's love letter the how The Strokes changed our world.

I too have The Strokes on my mind lately - was going through old ticket stubs the other day and found my ticket for the Guided by Voices-The Strokes NYC show on Feb 14 2001 (will have to post it), and seeing Julian hobnobbing his Christmas song on Jimmy Fallon. I guess we all liked that particular clean-edged guitar sound, and we still hear it alot in bands today.

Calling the Strokes debut "Is This It?" its top LP of the decade, NME writes "Some criticised The Strokes for being ‘style over substance’ (perhaps true) or plundering the sounds of the past too much (also fair – as a gloriously shameless plagiarist Julian C was up there with Noel G). But if you were even thinking about what was ‘wrong’ with them, you were missing the point entirely and more importantly, missing out. Certainly, The Strokes were not always perfect: their interviews were often boring as fuck, their second album was flawed." Amen.

Tuesday Traffic Cop

Ok, get out the way, step to the curb, here's a bunch of rock bits coming through...

- I Rock Cleveland blog names its winners in off-the-cuff rock categories. Robert Pollard and Boston Spaceships win for "The Keith Richards Un-Memorial Award for Rock 'N' Roll Longevity"; J. Mascis wins for "The Golden Axe of Odin Award"; The Japandroids take the prize for "The New Kids on the Rock Block Award" and Yo La Tengo wins for "The Excellence in Awesomeness Award".

Check some Japandroids here:


- My older brothers used to listen to Rory Gallagher when I was growing up. He was a 60s-70s trad blues rock guitarist. PopMatters reviews a new double disc retrospective on the Irish guitarist. Watch a fine clip below.



- The Nation asks "Can Pop Music Survicde without a Mass Market or Mass Profits?" (via The Daily Swarm)

- Wilco main man Jeff Tweedy played Phoenix' Orpheum Theater the other night - I missed it - and Phoenix New Times music editor Martin Cizmar thought it was better than any other concert he saw in Phoenix this year. It probably didn't hurt that Tweedy was on Christmas vacation out here, or as Cizmar wrote... "The show was, Tweedy claimed, a way to pay for his family's visit to his sister's house for the holidays and whether or not that's true, there was an unusually joyous vibe for a concert, and Tweedy was in great spirits."

- On this date (December 29) a decade ago (1999) George Harrison was stabbed by a deranged intruder at his Friar Park estate. The knife narrowly missed his heart, and he was hospitalized with a punctured lung. George was the quiet Beatle. Watch him here rockin' the old Carl Perkins chestnut 'Honey Don't' from a 1987 club gig.




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Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas" original documentary

Back in 1984, a bollocks load of UK pop stars got together at the urging of Irish band Boomtown Rats' leader Bob Geldof to record a charity song to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The gang of pop stars was dubbed Band Aid and the song was "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which eventually earned over 8 million pounds sterling for famine relief and helped re-ignite charity work by pop stars, leading to the even larger LiveAid in summer 1985.

This original 29-minute documentary in three parts below documents the day and night that the cream of UK pop stars and musicians came together in one vision to help others in need.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


And for extra credit, here's a more recent clip on a few of the singers involved with the line "And tonight thank God it's them, instead of you..."

A Rage Against Christmas

The Christmas #1 singles in England have always been a big deal in that music market. Over the years, there has been many great singles at the top during Christmas week, like The Beatles' "Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out" in 1965, Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" in 1973, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 1984 and Bob the Builder's "Can We Fix It" in 2000. But in recent years, the campaign has been hijacked a bit by Simon Cowell's ragtag music killers.

Until recently, the gratified winners were those who went to the shops to buy a single hoping to help it to the top of the charts for Christmas. It was as part of the season as Christmas pudding and Christmas crackers. But this year, social media killed the Radio Star.

As Aidan Coughlin the Herald writes....

"Most of us know the story by now. The (UK) Christmas number-one slot has long been dominated by reality TV winners, with only two exceptions since Girls Aloud clinched the top spot on the back of their Popstars win in 2002. More to the point, the past four number ones have all come from X Factor winners.

So, to stop them from making it five-in-a-row, a Facebook campaign was set up encouraging people to buy Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' and get it to the top of the charts.

It succeeded, but what point was really proven? What statement has actually been made on the nature of modern pop music, or manufactured talent? Like many, I'm still struggling to work that out."

I think it's fascinating from a human perspective that Rage Against the Machine (or their fans) got enough people jazzed to act online to dethrone a boring reality TV show song for the UK Christmas #1. But essentially, it looks to me like 'ballot stuffing' of the new social media order, a fraud that looks like a fraud, walks like a fraud and is a fraud. As quaint traditions, this business of the Christmas number 1 is as hokey as our Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (one LONG shopping advert). But still, I think the British radio listeners got let down this year. That's too bad.

Merry Christmas, Everybody.

Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock (out June 2010)

A June 2010 book forthcomig from Andrew Earles on the mightiest of all mighty bands. Can't wait.

Rock Clip of the Week - The Replacements - Talent Show, Live

Today's Rock Clip of the Week is a great clip of The Replacements doing "Talent Show" on ABC's shortlived Rock Awards network TV awards show, which the Mats management somehow got them onto the show.

"The band caused some controversy at the ABC Rock Awards show when they performed a version of their track “Talent Show” where Paul (in response to the network censoring the line “feeling good from the pills we took”) inserted a line later into the song that went “It’s too late to take pills, here we go.”

Announcer: "We apologize, here they are...The Replacements."
Paul Westerberg: "What the hell are we doing here?"

Enjoy the Madness

Pixies - Minotaur Box Set promo video

The Pixies have put out a 33 minute video to celebrate their box set Minotaur. Here's a promo video they put together. Swell stuff.

And here is a link to pictures of the limited editor Minotar set.

Spoon takes Metacritic's 'best artist of the decade' award

Metacritic is the site that aggregates Film, Music, DVD and other reviews from all over the Web universe and brings it all under one roof to you, the discerning media hound, to see what the pro critics are writing about our modern cultural offerings. I love the site and use it often.

And the Austin band Spoon has just taken the site's award for top overall music artist of the decade. Here's Metacritic's criteria:

"We decided to highlight the top overall artists of the past 10 years by picking the artists who met the following three criteria:
(a) released at least 3 albums from 2000-09;
(b) at least two of those albums must be "great" (with a Metascore of 81 or higher); and
(c) the average (mean) Metascore for all of their releases from the decade must also be 81 or higher."

And according to this criteria, Spoon won. Does this mean that Spoon is in that dreaded "critic's fave" corner? Maybe. Metacritic was surprised, but in a good way. From the site: "The top 35 artists meeting all three criteria are displayed below (sorted by number of great albums, then by Metascore average), and the band topping the list was a surprise to us as well, albeit a pleasant one. The Austin, Texas indie-rock band Spoon may not be the most prolific band of the decade, but they were the most consistently great. From 2001’s stellar Girls Can Tell to 2007’s, well, stellar Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the Britt Daniel-led group received accolades from the music press and music fans for their impeccable songwriting and addictive songs."

Here's the top five list:
Artist # Releases # Great Average Metascore
1 Spoon 4 4 85.3
2 Sigur Rós 4 4 83.5
3 Super Furry 6 4 82.5
4 Sleater-Kinney 3 3 86.3
5 White Stripes 4 3 84.8

And what timing! The new Spoon LP 'Transference' comes out in three weeks. The new single "written in Reverse" is out on iTunes. Get it.

Joe Strummer Tribute - Dec 19, Phoenix

Old school punk rockers will raise a toast or three, a guitar or four and a whiff of love to remembering Clash leader Joe Strummer on Saturday night at George and Dragon's Pub in CenPho. Strummer died seven years ago this week.

Some of the bands scheduled to bring tribute to the man playing are: Rockin' AZ punk vets Glass Heroes, Plainfield Butchers, Santa Monica, CA punk stalwarts Symbol Six, Tempe's Plainfield Butchers, The Automatic Erasers and others.

The night is sure to have much Strummer-Clash songs played by the bands - make plans and be there with the old rocker dudes.

Watch more Clash here.

Ted Leo - 12/6 live show recording at NYC Taper

Brooklyn Vegan reviewed a recent Ted Leo show and linked to a live recording of it (via NYCTaper). Here's the setlist:
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Bowery Ballroom, NYC - 12-06-2009
Setlist (as recorded)
01 Heart Problems
02 Me and Mia
03 The One Who Got Us Out
04 tuning
05 The Mighty Sparrow
06 The Ballad of the Sin Father
07 Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
08 tuning
09 Even Heroes Have to Die
10 The Stick
11 I'm A Ghost
12 Army Bound
13 tuning/banter
14 One Polaroid A Day
15 The High Party
16 Parallel or Together?
17 tuning/banter
18 Counting Down the Hours
19 Where Was My Brain
20 tuning/banter
21 A Bottle of Buckie
22 Under the Hedge
23 tuning/crowd
24 Bottled and Corked
25 The Crane Takes Flight
26 Last Days
27 encore break
28 [unknown cover song]
29 Timorous Me
30 Biomusicology

Rock Hall of Fame Inductees announced

Looks like it's gonna be a good March show! The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2010 Inductees -
The Stooges (Iggy & the late 60s drug users)
The Hollies (Best rock harmonies ever?)
ABBA (Swedish popmeisters)
Jimmy Cliff (rhymes with spliff, but did it rock?) and
Genesis (only worth it if Gabriel shows up)

No love for KISS - You think Gene Simmons will be PO'd....?

From the Village Voice blog: The Stooges, who patiently rocked behind Iggy while beer bottles flew at the Michigan Theater in the late 60s and early 70s, have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rendering the honor bittersweet is guitarist Ron Asheton's death earlier this year, and music in general.
Also inducted as performers: the Hollies (originally featuring Graham Nash, who is "honored"; auteurs of odd pop songs like Stop! Stop! Stop!, Bus Stop and The Air That I Breathe); prog-rock pioneers Genesis; Jimmy Cliff, best known for The Harder They Come; and the dancing Swedes of ABBA.

Jam with The Everybody (David & Joey from The Pixies)

It's the New NEW way to make music! All virtual, all the time!

Check The Everybody, a new project from one-half of The Pixies.

"Ever wanted Joey Santiago or David Lovering to play on your song or album? Ever wish you could make music with legendary producer Eddie Kramer? The Deluxe version of Avatar comes with bonus tracks, lossless files and royalty-free album stems for you to remix, reimagine and reinvent... and then make millions of dollars selling! But that's not all! Once you've created new music from the Avatar stems, audition for The Everybody Else by submitting your song to Joey and David via SoundCloud."

Around the Music Blogosphere

Snatches of wholesome rock 'n roll goodness from around the inter-connected world:

- Largehearted Boy lists its "favorite eleven albums of 2009"..., including words and Mp3s on The Japandroids, Rhett Miller, Mountain Goats and others.

- Glide Magazine lists its 50 best albums of the decade. The mag also has a good review on a new Velvet Underground book called "White Light White Heat".

- Phoenix New Times 'Up on the Sun' blog wrote about its love for the 30 Seconds to Mars performance on Conan last week: "30 Seconds to Mars put on one of the best band performances on network television when they performed their single, "Kings and Queens," last week on Conan O'Brien. There were nearly 20 people on-stage at once, including a punky choir, three free-standing drummers who danced the whole time and a string quartet. It was so amazing to watch, and everyone on-stage seemed to be really into it."

- Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Laurie Lindeen (author, gal pal of Paul Westerberg, etc.) interviews Joey Ramone's younger brother Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil on Leigh's new memoir (co-written with Please Kill Me's co-author McNeil). ""I approached it like a really, really, really long song," says Leigh, a songwriter before taking up the memoirist's pen. "Joey's musical roots were planted in our family's story, and my tears are on a lot of those pages."

Rock Clip of the Week - R.E.M. Harbourcoat (live)

This week's Rock Clip of the Week is a pretty cool clip of R.E.M. doing Harbourcoat on German TV in 1985. Peter Buck does his best jangly Johnny Thunders impression, while Michael Stipe with short blond hair and skinny Mike Mills do it right with great intertwining vocals. Read the book.

Christmas - Holiday Music Links

- Granddaddy's Jason Lytle is offering up free Christmas songs at his BandCamp site.


- EAR FARM and Let 'Em In Studios announce the release of Do you EAR what I EAR?, a holiday album for the Association to Benefit Children, available NOW as a digital download exclusively on EAR FARM's Store Page for $5.00. "Do you EAR what I EAR? features original and classic holiday songs from Tom Tom Club, Asobi Seksu, Sean Bones, Sharon Van Etten, and many more, and all of the proceeds will go directly to the Association to Benefit Children, an outstanding New York-based service dedicated to permanently break the cycles of abuse, neglect, sickness and homelessness among disadvantaged children and their families."


- Indie Rock Christmas songs - Find a bunch from the likes of Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Jimmy Eat World, My American Heart, Ryan Adams, Funeral For a Friend, Low, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and many others. (via IndieRockCafe


- The good kids at A Very Standard Christmas have released their 2nd Lp of Christmas faves from their label roster. "We wanted to release this yuletide release the easiest and free-ist way possible. Luckily, the super-kind and very smart people at Nuvo were ready and willing to roll up their sleeves and figure out how to offer the latest Very Standard Christmas album as a download and help us release it."

- Smoky sultry Christmas singing from Australia's Cass Eager and the Mo Debleys


And - Greg Lake sings "I Believe in Father Christmas" just....for....you.

Best Music 2009 lists coming in

This is the time of the year when all the 'best music of the year' lists start appearing. Sometimes I've actually heard what's listed, but oftentimes it's all new to me. That's why I love how great these lists have become - streams, videos, links and pics. Everything you need to know about the faces behind the songs. Best of the Year. Best of the Decade. Best of YOUR LIFE.

Tonight, I've found the following high points of music lists:

- Popmatters starts the week off with its list of 50 best indie pop SINGLES for the year. Animal Collective's 'My Girls' takes Popmatters #1 slot. Great vocals. Discuss other attributes amongst yourselves.

Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion LP also takes top honors for best LP of the year at Clash Music.

- Here's a link for the "Best Underrated Post Punk albums of the Decade". Daring.

- Pitchfork will probably get it its best music list together this week or next, but you can probably get a feel for thieir eventual winners from their new LPs reviews right here. For right now, you get its best(?) news of the year.

- And again, as he has done every year for as long as I can recall, Largehearted Boy aggregates (and updates!) all the end-year Best music lists into a handy post with links.

Know of any others? Leave 'em in the comments.

Harry Nilsson - The Monkees Demos

1960s-1970s singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson was a cool cat back in the day who got signed to RCA records in late 1966 on the strength of his songs and his voice. In March 1967, he went into the studio with Monkees producer Chip Douglas and recorded a group of demos, some of which were offered to The Monkees, the best known being Cuddly Toy. All these recordings sound great today, as if you're the fly on the studio wall. Here's the lowdown on these demo sessions:

"Harry Nilsson - The Monkees Demos (1967) Recorded on March 17, 1967 while auditioning material for The Monkees and their producer Chip Douglas, less than a month after Harry signed to RCA Records. The Monkees would eventually cover Harry's "Cuddly Toy," among others. Harry even played piano and sang backup vocals on a few Monkee sessions over the years.

The recorded demos include:
1. I Live In A World
2. Signs
3. Counting (with false start)
4. Cuddly Toy
5. Hey Little Girl
6. Good Times
7. This Could Be The Night (with Superman false start)
8. The Story Of Rock And Roll

Read more about these sessions at the Nilsson tribute blog For the Love of Harry.

And if you really need to have these songs, try this link.

Hello It's Me - Do You Remember?

Sweet Apple, featuring members of Dinosaur Jr., Cobra Verde and Witch, recently signed to NYC's Tee Pee Records. The indie-rock supergroup will release its debut album "Love and Desperation" on March 30, 2010. The band consists of rock 'n' roll vets - Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis (drums/guitar/vocals); Cobra Verde's Tim Parnin (guitar) and John Petkovic (vocals/guitar), Witch's Dave Sweetapple (bass/vocals).

Pitchfork has the first song from the guys - Do You Remember?

More from TeePee Records:
Sweet Apple, you see, was born by accident and friendship - out of death, after a cross-country drive. Singer-guitarist John Petkovic got in his car heading eastward days after the passing of his mother -- to smoke cigarettes, listen to music and clear his head. He didn't even know where he was going or where he'd end up. He ended up in New England, the home of long-time friends Dave Sweetapple and J. Mascis, who told John to start writing some songs so they could start a band. Within weeks, and after recruiting Cobra Verde guitarist Tim Parnin they started working on an album.

The result is "Love and Desperation." The 12-song disc casts a wide net, reflecting the disparate sounds of all their bands: catchy power-pop, crushing rock and wounded ballads. "I hadn't even played the guitar for months," says Petkovic. "And then, out of the blues, there were all these songs just coming out."

Recorded in Cleveland and Massachusetts, "Love and Desperation" was mixed by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth and The Hold Steady) and Don Depew (Cobra Verde, Guided by Voices). "I tell people that I saved John's life by starting this band," says Mascis. "But they don’t believe me." Sweet Apple is currently working on a video for the opening track, "Do You Remember," a driving, rock anthem. The band plans to tour and perform at South by Southwest.

Rock Clip of the Week - Joe Jackson Band "Friday"

"Ain't talking about Monday,
Ain't talking about Tuesday,
Ain't talking about Wednesday,
Ain't talking about Thursday,
I'm talking 'bout FRIDAY!"

Friday Rules OK! Check out live Joe Jackson with his fine song "Friday"

New TV 21 release - 28 years on!

I've written before at Waved Rumor about TV21, the great Scottish band of the late 1970s/early 1980s. Their sound back then was blistering, energetic, upfront and joyous. I still throw A Thin Red Line on the turntable every few months for the horns and drums



TV21 (comprised of Neil Baldwin – bass guitar; Simon McGlynn – drums; Ally Palmer – guitar; and Norman Rodger – vocals, guitar) got back together a few years ago and started playing music and the occasional gig again. Now they've just released a new CD called Forever 22 - love that sentiment! Read more at the full press release cached here.

At the band's MySpace page, they write: "New TV21 album - "Forever 22" out now. The first TV21 album for 28 years has just been released on cd, vinyl and download on Powbeat Records. The album features a mix of old and new material, with 10 tracks on the vinyl version and a further eight bonus tracks on the CD. The CD edition of the album is now on sale via Avalanche Records, Ripping Records and other outlets - vinyl and download to follow soon.. Copies are available online."

Vulture Whale - New EP, tour, good rock

"You look as good as you did in the '80s, you're still a head-turner... Do you look good for a woman your age? You're so pretty, pretty....ageless..."

That's a sample of the funny, insightful lyrics thrown around the song "Headturner" from the band Vulture Whale, whose (2nd) debut LP came out earlier this year. You can also hear the song at the band's MySpace site.

My pal John tipped me off to Vulture Whale a few weeks back and I'm glad he did. I like what I hear alot - raucous guitar rock, mixed with vocal Strokes-isms, Replacements rush, Pollard British accents and more. Definitely worth a listen for the indie garage rocker inside you. I'll be hearing more of this crew I'm sure.

The band's website is great - lots of info, blog pix and posts, plus you can get a freebie download of Vulture Whale's new EP called Bamboo You.

Others are singing the band's praises as well:
Power of Pop - "Vulture Whale have perfected a formula here of quirky lyrics matched by a punk rock energy on top of the easy melodic, rockabilly hooks. Buy this album, draw the curtains, lock the doors, and air-guitar away as you bounce on your bed."
Static - "The album is rough and raw, but that's the nature of their music. It has that kind of an edge to it... the new Vulture Whale would make an excellent road trip soundtrack."
The Fire Note - "The quartet make no mistakes that this is a no frills straight forward rock record that has catchy melodies, in your face guitar and pounding drums that all combine for a good time and an incentive to come back for more.



Vulture Whale has the following shows lined up, likely a lot more coming by spring.
Dec 4 - The Nick w/ Ibilisi Takedown and Starter Kits
Birmingham, Alabama
Dec 26 - The Bottle Trees
Birmingham, Alabama
Jan 16 2010 - The Independent
Auburn, Alabama
Jan 21 2010 - Hi Tone w/Glossary
Memphis, Tennessee
Jan 22 2010 - White Water Tavern w/Glossary
Little Rock, Arkansas
Jan 23 2010 - The Basement w/ Glossary
Nashville, Tennessee
Jan 28 2010 - The Caledonia w/Glossary
Athens, Georgia
Jan 29 2010 - The Hummingbird w/ Glossary
Macon, Georgia
Jan 30 2010 - Bottletree w/ Glossary
Birminghum, Alabama
Feb 20 2010 - The Double Door w/ Lambhandler
Charlotte, North Carolina
Mar 5 2010 - The Nick w/ Lambhandler
Birmingham, Alabama

Rock and Roll Fandom - Bomp 2: Born in the Garage

"BOMP! 2: Born in the Garage is a heavyweight celebration of the roots of rock fandom. The book includes more than 300 pages of reproductions from Greg Shaw’s pioneering ‘70s era zines WHO PUT THE BOMP and BOMP!, including stories on ‘60s garage and beat, surf music, the British Invasion, girl groups, rockabilly, acid punk and psychedelia, along with obsessively detailed discographies and label listings, plus reams of readers’ letters and never before published material. The sheer volume of historical information is almost mind-boggling.

Also included are reprints from Shaw’s obscure ‘personal’ zines, METANOIA and LIQUID LOVE, circulated in 1970-72 to just a handful of friends and fellow writers. Aside from including a huge selection of Shaw’s insightful writing, BOMP! 2 also includes rare early work by celebrated rock scribes like Ken Barnes, Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Richard Meltzer, Dave Marsh, Mike Saunders, Phast Phreddie and more. The artwork of underground artists like Jay Kinney, William Stout and Tim Kirk is also included. The book also boasts new essays by Jon Savage, Alec Palao, Ken Barnes, Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax, and eye-popping cover art by the immortal William Stout.

This is the ultimate anthology of rock ’n’ roll fandom from its inception to its mid/late 1970s heyday."

Order it here.