SPIN Magazine did Rock N’ Roll fans a solid, and put every issue from their back catalog – dating back to the first issue in May, 1985 that featured Madonna on the cover – on Google Books.
At some point I’m going to go way down the rabbit hole with this. Chuck Klosterman features, here I come. In the meantime, check out ten covers from what I think we can all agree was the golden age of SPIN – the 1990s.
Tuesday night, I went to my first Trey Anastasio concert at Terminal 5 in NYC (conveniently located on 11th Ave near all the bad nudie bars. Woohoo!). For those of you who do not know who Trey is, he is the lead singer of Phish. For those of you who do know who he is, below is the set list:
Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB
February 16, 2010
Terminal 5
New York, NY
Set One: Shine, Cayman Review, Push On ‘Til the Day, Alaska, Mozambique, Gotta Jibboo, All That Almost Was, Drifting, Liquid Time, The Birdwatcher, Night Speaks to a Woman, Tuesday, Brian and Robert*, Strange Design*, Sample in a Jar*, Chalkdust Torture*, Wilson*
Set Two: Sand, Alive Again, Last Tube> Show of Life, Sultans of Swing, Ether Sunday, Black Dog
Encore: Magilla, First Tube
* – Trey Solo Acoustic
Now, I am not a huge Trey fan. I like some of his music, he’s a phenomenal guitar player, and it was an excuse to drink beer and hang with my buddies on a Tuesday night (I sincerely hope I have not offended any Phish Heads reading this by saying that). Here is what I learned:
1) I will get the sophomoric, frat-boy comments out of the way first: We saw one woman we deemed attractive. Moving on…
2) Several of the songs Trey and Classic TAB played? They originally wrote ‘em and they were later adopted by Phish, prompting one buddy to say “HA! Phish is like a glorified cover band!” (again, Phish Heads, he is a big Trey fan. He was kidding. Please no hippie voodoo on us).
3) The concert started at 8:30 and lasted (minus a short break in the middle) until midnight. Set two was 70 minutes alone. However, the energy was high the entire time and it’s hard not to get excited when there’s a second-set ending cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”:
5) Finally, the concert was a blast (if you get a chance to check the band out, after one concert I suggest you do so) but there was a TINY part of me that was hoping we’d get a surprise guest…like this one:
I don’t really have an opinion on who’s going to win the game. However, I am certain, by the end of Sunday night, we will all be sick and tired of hearing the song When The Saints Go Marching In. Even odds that The Who noodle around with it during half time.
If you dislike this song – which, not for nothing, if you dislike this song then you’re a jerk, it’s delightful and timeless – you should probably either watch the game on mute or chew your 7-foot sandwich really loudly.
Here are my Top Five Renditions* of When The Saints Go Marching In.
*So as not to go buck-wild with the Saints favoritism, I didn’t post the original Who Dat?! version, but I did post it over here.
Even though the festival site looks like a barren desert, the grounds are somehow dubbed the Empire Polo Club.
Goldenvoice, the company organizing the event, also runs All Points West festival.
So you’re saying there’s a chance that Gorillaz could be headlining an East Coast festival too?
Rolling Stone reports, just one day after Gorillaz were named the Saturday night headliner of Coachella, the first single ‘Stylo’ off the band’s upcoming third album leaked on YouTube, here it is:
As the Google search above begs, hit the poll at the bottom and let me know what you think about this track.
Trying to figure out his angle here. Because the Ian Mackaye that I know would avoid like the plague anything with even a tinge of corporate sensibility. So, what exactly is he doing in a web series called D.I.Y. America that’s produced by Nike’s ad agency, Wieden+Kennedy?
Along with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and some of the old school of skating’s finest, Mackaye is featured in an episode (or part of one) called Skate & Create, which “explores “the skaters’ gaze”— the way a skateboarder looks at the urban environment in a completely different way from others.”
It’s not bad – not nearly as clownish as the phrase skaters’ gaze would suggest – but I thought you were militant about this sort of thing, Mackaye? After all, it’s called D.I.Y. America, yet the video is only available on W+K’s website here?
I’m sure he had his reasons, still, I’d like to think of Ian Mackaye like this: on a budget stage performing a $5 show.
Anywho, it’s the last gasp of the first decade of the greatest century in someone’s history, everyone’s just not sure it’s going to be them. Whether you look back on 2009 like it’s a grotesque animal. Whether the last year left you feeling like you’re part of an empire of dust. Whether you’ve got no prospects or career opportunities or affordable health care. Whether you think you’re fighting for a lost cause. Or whether you believe a change is gonna come, listen to these 8 songs and kiss 2009 goodbye.
Cause as my main man, Darryl Hall, says: She’s gone, and I’d pay the devil to replace her.
True nerd alert: I love streaming internet radio. I really do. I’ll even go as far to keep a post-it on my desk so I can note the names of bands who I’d like to check out further on their Myspace page. It’s sort of the 2.0 version of listening to the radio on a tape deck boombox and recording the songs that you like on a Memorex (born in the 1980s alert).
No online station gave me as much streaming enjoyment in 2009 as WOXY. Primarily, because it streams the best on my questionable internet connection at work. Most people however who rep online radio stations put WOXY, based out of Austin, TX in the upper echelon of those living online that play independent bands too (KEXP, KCRW).
Yesterday on WOXY’s blog The Futurist they announced the availability of their Best of SXSW 2009 Lounge CD, a collection of tracks recorded at last year’s festival at James Stevens at EAR studios in Austin, Texas.
2009 was another great year for music in the WOXY Lounge. And it was another great year for our lounge recordings during SXSW 2009 as well. We were back at EAR studios again this year for a new record 27 live sessions.
The CD will be available later in the week, but you can download 12 tracks from the WOXY Lounge on The Futurist now, including tunes from the Mother Mother, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, and the reigning kings of coming up with song titles, the Future of the Left – get ‘Arming Eritrea’ on Futurist; see also ‘You Need Satan More than he Needs You’ ‘adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood’ and ‘I am Civil Service’ by FOTL on their MySpace.
The music portion of this year’s SXSW runs from March 17-22, and I’m sure the WOXY folks are hard at work going through this ever-growing list of showcase bands at the 2010 festival, which is already 466 names deep.
If I was in Zun Zun Egui, I’d immediately change the name of the band to Aardvarks.
First off, if you don’t own this movie you can’t possibly be human. And if you do own this movie and you don’t know this song by heart, you can’t possibly be human.
I don’t need to explain this one. It’s Daniel LaRusso and Kobra Kai (says, No Mercy!) fighting to “You’re the Best Around”. I know you know all the words to this song. You don’t have to admit it.
This isn’t a fight per se, but only because the fax machine doesn’t fight back. But there are weapons involved and you can never go wrong with a Geto Boys song, so it makes the list. Deal with it.
One of my favorite movies of all time. In this classic clip, Kung Fu Joe roughs up a few cops while, wait for it………”Kung Fu Fighting” is playing. Does it get any better than that?
Ah, Charlie’s Angels. Ah, Charlie’s Angels. Ah, Charlie’s Angels. Gotta give this movie mad props. They could’ve just left it at 3 beautiful women kicking tail. That would’ve been good enough. But they went the extra mile and dropped a track like “Smack My B*tch Up” in the middle of 3 beautiful women kicking tail.
The rumors started percolating yesterday in the blogs that Frusciante is no longer with the band and would be replaced by the enigmatic Josh Klinghoffer, oddly enough someone who’s most notable for his collaboration with Frusciante. As recently as a few hours ago, however, the headlines still read Frusciante Quits Chili Peppers?
All speculation aside, for those interested in a deeper dive into who exactly Josh Klinghoffer is, he’s got stats. Along with playing with Frusciante – including the two recording an album together, A Sphere in the Heart of Silence – Klinghoffer has been linked to records and tours with Beck, Butthole Surfers, Gnarls Barkley and PJ Harvey to name a few. Him and Frusciante also hooked up with John Lally from Fugazi to record two albums under the name Ataxia.*
If you want to get real granular with your rock analysis, he’s got that thin, disheveled weirdo look down pat, which bodes best for fitting in RHCP; see Frusciante, Hillel Slovak. (DN, sorry hombre.)
We’ll have to wait for something hard confirmed from the band before writing this one in stone – maybe a good opportunity for Flea or Kiedis to sign up for Twitter? Until then, check out some videos below from Klinghoffer’s body of work and check out the madness that this guy would be bringing to the table.
