The Beatles - Songs & Pictures

I'm reading a swell new Beatles photo book (do we need another? YES!) from the editors of the UK newspaper The Daily Mirror, which was there pretty much at the beginning of Beatlemania and onwards.

It's called Across the Universe (lame title, that): John Paul George Ringo on tour and on stage. Well, you could call it, John Paul George Ringo on stage 35% of the photos, and the other 65% airport pics, backstage pics and assorted pics. But nonetheless, it's pretty cool. It came out last fall, and the Beatles Bible writes:
"Many of the photographs in Across The Universe have never been seen before. Others were first published in The Beatles Files by Andy Davis, a 1998 book now out of print. Some come from the Sunday tabloid The People, the Daily Herald from Glasgow, and from the agency Syndication International.

Photographic collections of The Beatles are nothing new, with collections by Dezo Hoffman, Paul Saltzman and Robert Freeman having published celebrated collections of the group. Of the British newspapers that were so well-placed to report on the story of the 60s, however, perhaps only the Daily Mail assembled a comparable archive."

There is a stage when the Beatles are on their 1965 tour and John is all ringed up in stripes and white pants - I love that look.

I'm embedding The Beatles singing "If I Needed Someone" from their 1966 Japanese show. I've always loved the backdrop created for this show and the Fabs look great in front of it. You also may notice (as some YouTube commenters do) the moving microphone in front of John and Paul. Not sure what's causing it, but the mics are moving!



And here's a video from November 1, 1963 of an early Beatles interview. They're goofin' and having fun and Paul does most of the talking. Some live clips of the Fabs in their collarless jackets follow. Nice. Old. Authentic.

Dfactor Rock Show - 910LiveAZ in Tempe

Here's a quick shout out to the club managers and staffers at Club 910LiveAZ in Tempe, AZ where my band played last night.

The soundman was excellent, really taking care to make us sound pretty durn good. The barman and doorman likewise. Friendly, helpful and attentive. Good experience all around for our first time playing there. I hope they liked having us there as well. Some shots below. All pics by Gregory Taylor.

R.E.M. covers The Haunted and Iggy Pop

This video goes back 18 years to the 40 Watt Club in Athens during (likely) a tour rehearsal show or a goof off night for the band. R.E.M. covers a great garage rock track by The Haunted (hear the original here) "I Can Only Give You Everything" and Iggy's "Funtime", long a staple in their live shows then.

Paul Weller is Mod, Prays Mod, Stays Mod

Spinner talks with Modfather Paul Weller about his CD "Wake up the Nation" (buy the CD at Yeproc) and get Paul's Greatest Hits CD as well) and Paul shares his views on this very spiritual, personal thing called Mod:

"It's an English phenomenon, really," Weller says. "It's really hard to explain. It goes beyond Fred Perrys and stuff, way beyond that. It's a way of looking at the world. You're in this society, but you have your own thing going on. For me, it's just the whole mindset, a culture and mindset. I don't mind being associated with it or not -- it doesn't matter to me. I feel I'm a mod. I can live with it or without it. It's revolving and adaptable."

"It's a tough thing to talk about," he adds. "It's like any religion, really."

- Weller's Thursday night show at Royal Albert Hall will be streamed live. It reads "20:45" for the US time. What time is that here on the west? 2pm? Who knows...Catch it

- NPR is also streaming "Wake Up the Nation" this week - nice!

Bellflur - New CD from DC Band - Asleep, Asleep

Bellflur is a DC-area band that has apparently crossed truth serums with Band of Horses to create its new look! I jest. Fun picture.


The band's new CD is "asleep, asleep" and here's the song "Insect Politics" from it. Dreamy. Loquacious. Invigorating.

"Bellflur has been likened to everything from Radiohead to a Salvador Dali painting, but whatever the comparison, the band has progressed by sculpting something unique and unapologetic. With a growing chatter about the Bellflur’s symphonic live shows and the press accolades already coming in for its new album, Bellflur has managed to push past its self-proclaimed shyness and closer to national recognition. “asleep.asleep.” will be self-released by the band’s own Sad Sewer Alligator label on June 8, 2010, with distribution by Baltimore-based Morphius Distribution."

Minus the Bear - Omni music, new video, tour hits Tempe

I'm a latecomer to the marvels that Minus the Bear bring home, but I'm catching up fast.

The band has a brand new video (see below), a musical release called Omni that came out in late April and has been getting pretty good reviews and they are winding up a tour next week. That tour brings the band to Tempe's Marquee Theater this weekend. (Although Minus the Bear are from Seattle, one of the cities that apparently is halting business with Arizona because of the immigration bill. So, are fans supposed to boycott Seattle bands coming here in retaliation?)

The video is for the song "My Time" and features the band against a mostly white backdrop, garbed in groovy colors and having black-clad gals stroke their faces. Song is cool, video is fresh.



The band is also playing Lollapalooza in Chicago this August.

Phoenix - North

'North' by Phoenix is a great instrumental song, a haunting lil guitar melody tucked inside an insistent beat, giving you the feeling of forward motion on a time machine without actually travelling anywhere...close your eyes and dream to this one...

Bruce Springsteen - Life Itself

Just a quick post to write that 'Life Itself', the fourth single released from Bruce Springsteen's 2009 album Working On A Dream, is just a flat-out awesome song. If you've not ever heard it, do yourself a favor and listen now.

Life Itself

A Line in the Sand (AZ music comp against SB1070)

Readers here may notice I rarely get mix my rock n' roll blog action with any political overtones. Heck, even friends I've had know I shy away from taking hardcore stands on things political. But here's an exception, as I've now entered the illegal immigration debate.

I contributed a rockin' track called 'Immigration Clampdown' for a just-released CD compilation called 'A Line in the Sand' (click image below to buy).



The compilation was spearheaded by the music editorial team at the Phoenix New Times, called 'one of the best alt-news weeklies in the country' by MediaMatters (and owned by Village Voice Media). They put out a call three weeks ago for PHX area musicians to contribute a protest song against the SB 1070 law, signed into law a few weeks ago.

According to this description from the Arizona Republic, "The law, which goes into effect in late July, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It says that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally." And that's where the protest doth lie. In that action of 'reasonable suspicion' which many people will lend itself instead toward racial profiling.

But back to the disc itself: many good local Phoenix and surrounding area music types have also contributed tracks, including the Joey Arroyo Band, Kirkwood Dellinger, River Jones and others from 'round here. And while thematically, it's all drawn together toward the SB 10870 law, musically it's all over the map. A couple of clicks here bears that out.

Can't say I've lived here long enough to understand all the historical issues around illegals in the state, and my song will likely stick out on the comp like an illegal immigrant at a Republican golf outing in Scottsdale, but hey, it's what I do. Hope you like it.

If you have any sensitivities toward the illegal immigrant situation, help support this CD by buying a copy and spreading the word via these links. Thanks.

Two Hit Kings Together - Pollard and Rose

It's weird, this blogging thing. Now that everybody throws up pics and videos and links on Facebook all day long, it feels like I regularly see things posted there that might make good blog posts. That's the case with this story below on two cool Cincy/Dayton cats - Pete Rose (MLB's all-time hit leader) and Robert Pollard (pop-music-in-my-head's all-time hit song writer).

SPIN had the story (and the accompanying pic here) about two weeks ago, just after I wrote another Pollard piece on an interview he did. But all the DtS boys and assorted Blowfish all put up the SPIN story all over their Facebook pages on 4/29. So here I am two weeks later, finally writing about this. (sigh)

The news is that ex-GBV honcho Robert Pollard is doing the rockin' music for "4,192 - The Crowning of the Hit King", an upcoming documentary about baseball's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, and asked Pollard to score the movie and write some anthems for it. As a star athlete earlier in his life, it was a no-brainer for Pollard, who told SPIN:

"They were looking for someone to do all the music and Matt said, "Bob's got thousands of songs, he's all you need." I met with them a few weeks ago and saw a rough cut and they said they wanted a lot of anthemic stuff. It's Pete Rose, he's got heart. Muscle and heart. They're using instrumental versions of songs that already exist, but I'm also gonna write one new song for them for the main theme -- five minutes long and building up to a big crescendo. I'm picking all these kick-ass songs for it. They want me to slow it down in certain spots, but it's Charlie Hustle, man."

So it looks cool! As a baseball playing kid in Chicago, I idolized Rose's hitting prowess. It was exciting to see him try to surpass Ty Cobb's record, which he eventually did on (get this) Sept. 11th, 1985.

There is a 4,192 Facebook page as well to stay on top of the happenings and photos around the movie. It opens this summer. Not sure when or where. And if you want to help get Rose sent to Cooperstown, sign up at the "Send Pete Rose to the Hall of Fame" Facebook page.

Watch the trailer here.

Teenage Fanclub new CD, tour, single download

Seems I missed this a few weeks back, but cool kids like Fuel Friends Blog helps keep me up to date on one of my fave guitar pop bands Teenage Fanclub.

Teenage Fanclub is releasing a new CD called Shadows and you can download this fab pop song Baby Lee. It rings and chimes and harmonizes in all the right Teenage Fanclub ways. Longtime fans should gobble this up. Yes, I like it.

The band will be playing live in session for BBC2 next week on May 26th on the Radcliffe & Maconie show, and will do a short tour starting next week.

Teenage Fanclub tour dates:
The Academy 2 Manchester May 27th
The Leadmill Sheffield May 28th
The Academy Dublin May 30th
The Warehouse Aberdeen June 1st
Glasgow O2 ABC Glasgow June 2nd
The Picture House Edinburgh June 3rd
The Cockpit Leeds June 4th
Bristol O2 Academy Bristol June 6th
Birmingham O2 Academy 2 B'gham June 7th
O2 Shepherds Bush EmpireLondon June 8th

Rock Clip of the Week - Cheap Trick, Goodnight Now (Budokan 1979)

Cheap Trick is the band that will likely never stop rocking - their tour schedule for 2010 is likely just as punishing as it was in 1979, when this clip of their song "Goodnight Now" (the flip to "Hello There"), was filmed.

Cheap Trick will be in my neck of the woods (Phoenix/Scottsdale) at the Talking Stick Casino playing for the high rollers on July 3rd - Get your tickets here.

Denis Leary Feels Good

"This is the land where we now have an affliction called S.A.D. -- Seasonal Affected Disorder -- which means when the leaves fall off the trees you begin to get lonely and depressed and anxious. It's called winter, folks. It comes right after autumn. And you are SUPPOSED to get depressed. Which is why we have Christmas right in the middle of it.

God has a master plan and it involves his son being born right as the snow begins to fall just as a reminder of why we are all here. Feeling depressed and anxious? Go outside, grab a shovel and start digging. Once your feet and fingers freeze up - go back inside where it's warm -- that oughta cure your case of the blues. Literally and figuratively."

Denis Leary Feels Good. Still. I'm happy about that. (via Huffington Post)

And a classic clip from "No Cure for Cancer"

Girls - Records

See loads more (some NSFW) over at My Retrospace blog.

Green Day Rips the (Fallon) Joint

International recording superstars Green Day did their bit to help American TV talk show host Jimmy Fallon kick off his tribute week to the reissued release of the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street". (Whew! Run On!)

Here's the clip - you do the rest!


More from Rolling Stone, which added...
"The frenetic "Joint" was already the most punk rock song on Exile, and the NoCal trio (and their touring musicians) gave the song an extra dose of thrash and speed, rendering the shortest track on Exile even briefer. Billie Joe Armstrong did a great job of keeping up with Mick Jagger's original cadence, as if Green Day had been covering the song for years."

Lydon, Public Image Ltd live concert on NPR

If you're a John Lydon fan or Public Image Ltd. listener, then NPR is the place to be this week.

National Public Radio has a half-hour interview segment with Lydon where he plays DJ and talks about his favorite old songs. He's on tour with PIL promoting the first US tour in 18 years.

Even better news is that NPR is streaming the PiL show LIVE from DC's 9:30 club Wednesday night. It starts about 8pm ET - 7pm Central and 5pm out here in Zonieland.

Anger is an Energy.

Dfactor Upcoming Live Shows

"It's My Blog, I can Promo if I want to..."

Good news on the 'Makin' Live Music' front for me these days - ROCK BAND! I've gotten a power trio together! Kudos to PHX rhythm stalwarts Gary and Stew for taking the step forward to contact me after reading the article about me in the PHX New Times and saying "Let's rock!"

We have been rehearsing steadily through April and will showcase our live goods this Friday, May 14th at 9pm at The Hollywood Alley in Mesa, ASZ, a stage I graced last year as part of the first PHX International Pop Overthrow show. Thanks to The Breakup Society for offering us the slot.

If you're anywhere near the illegal immigr-, um, I mean the Phoenix/Mesa/101 area, stop by The Hollywood Alley next Friday for a peek into what's shakin'! Or share the Reverbnation widget below with your rock buddies around the scene.

Rock Clip of the Week - The New Pornographers "The Crash Years" (live, TV Fallon)

Pitchfork ran this today as well, but it's such a great lil song and a cool clip that I thought I'd run it as the Waved Rumor Rock Clip of the Week.

It's AC Newman, Niko Case and the rest of The New Pornographers singing "The Crash Years" on Jimmy Fallon's show last night. Fine pop, good harmonies (as usual for the New Porns) and spot-on whistling! And a brilliantly played, economical guitar solo (my favorite kind!) - It all adds up to GO! Their new CD 'Together' is getting good reviews as well. Listen to it at NPR.

NME Creates Social Network for Bands

MediaPost reports:

NME Creates Social Network For Bands
"NME, the music magazine with a cleverish name, is launching its own version of MySpace, kind of. NME Breakthrough is a social networking community that will allow bands and fans to create customizable profiles in order to interact with one another as well as upload videos and music. And NME might just be able to mine the network for content. Music editor Jaimie Hodgson will comb the site with the goal of seeking new talent for the magazine's Radar section. Plus, bands using the network have the potential of being selected for other opportunities, like the chance to open this year's Lovebox music festival."

AC/DC Revisited, Remembered, Regurgitated

I'm reading a book on AC/DC right now called "AC/DC Maximum Rock N Roll - The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock Band". I'm not yet up to the band's 1976's UK tour, and it's already good fun, rich in detail and ripe with anecdotes by the two authors - Aussie rock writer Murray Engleheart and AC/DC afficionado Arnaud Durieux.

Essentially, the Young brothers Malcolm and Angus picked up guitars at early ages, and apart from their earliest groups, the two have been playing together pretty much since. Amazing. The book is a great companion to the AC/DC Amp box Back Tracks, which I've heard some of and dip back into for live AC/DC action every now and again.

Today I read that the UK's Mojo Magazine features a video retrospective of the band, peer-reviewed by Angus and Malcolm Young, as they look back on "...a career of video mayhem, revealing the back-stories behind thirty-odd years of cross-dressing, jock-rocking, church-desecrating, exploding ordnance and the like." The post features loads of videos from the early days, including the band's version of "Baby, Please Don't Go" and "Let There Be Rock", and others.

But here's more AC/DC video action you should check out at your leisure - Part 1 of a 8-part series on AC/DC - The Bon Scott Years - Part 1 is embedded below. Rock it out with the Aussie Kings!

Monday Music Mania

Happy Monday! Been working on my music playin' side of my life earlier today - now's time to get to my music bloggin' side...

Here's a cornucopia of music-related newsy items:

- When bands would start out in days gone by, one needed to just make sure...
a) where you'd rehearse, and b) who's bringing the beer.
Now, it seems, there's a whole checklist of way too much stuff for bands to do when starting out.

- Graham Smith (Kleenex Girl Wonder maestro) has a new CD out that's pretty good - it's called "Accept the Mystery.

- Perhaps a problem exists that when you Google "Phoenix, rock 'n roll" the results bring you...a running race.

- Mark your calendars - Dave, Taylor and the rest of Foo Fighters will come around again next year.

- The Hold Steady rocked Letterman the other day - check out The Weekenders (via Stereogum.)