Mar 31, 2009
Mar 30, 2009
Death - the blog
The Detroit-based proto punk band, Death, has their own blog now. Click here to visit. You might remember I posted something a couple of weeks back following the story about them in the NY Times.
Click here to order their album from Drag City Records, or here to order it from Amazon
.
Mar 27, 2009
Friday ephemera - Punk, Post Punk & Hardcore
To make up for missing last week's installment, here's an extra large helping of NY-related ephemera...beautiful stuff.
(Thanks to Howie Pyro for the scan)
(Thanks to Howie Pyro for the scan)
(Thanks to Howie Pyro for the scan)
(Thanks to Howie Pyro for the scan)
Mar 26, 2009
Mar 25, 2009
Etherea at the Brooklyn Flea
From Etherea:
This weekend, I'll be setting up a table to sell vinyl records, CDs, and posters from 11am til 6pm at the Brooklyn Flea. Expect to see the same mix of music represented at the former East Village shop: indie, electronic, dance, post punk, and classics. If you haven't yet been to this Winter Pop-Up Market, you are in for a treat; not only will you get music, live djs, and hand-made goods, there will be good eats and tasty treats, so plan on coming for a post-brunch snack! Look for me in the 81 Front St. space, middle of the room near the DJ setup.
Map/Directions
Mar 24, 2009
The Gun Club reassessed
There's a nice article on the Gun Club over at Crawdaddy to read. Its interesting to me because I've been listening to them quite a bit lately...possibly because of Lux Interior's death, and the two bands will always be linked together in my mind.
But anyway, I've just been thinking about how underrated the Gun Club are. Listening to them I'm struck by what an amazing assortment of influences I can hear in the music, and what an interesting time the band existed in, and was, for lack of a better term, permitted to exist in. If I had to put a label on it, which I'm hesitant to do, it could possibly be termed pre-Americana although its WAY more interesting & attitudinal than that mannered genre of music has ever been.
Now I just need to get my hands on a copy of Ghost On the Highway. Has anyone seen it?
Etherea update
For those interested, Etherea Records (or whats left of it) is now comfortably residing in the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn. Click here for more information.
Mar 21, 2009
Rough Trade on BBC4
Over at Click Opera, Momus gives us his take on the recently aired Rough Trade Records documentary. I'm really looking forward to seeing this, and barring any wireless internet glitches, I'll be watching tonight!
"A potted history of every UK independent label ever: there's a flamboyant hustler guy who spends all day making deals on the phone, and a quiet boring guy who stays in the back office, shuffling paper, balancing the books, tapping at a calculator. The hustler guy aspires to be as big a pop star as the artists he handles, but never quite gets there, though he outlives and outearns them. The boring guy keeps the business afloat, but starts to develop issues about being undervalued and overlooked." Continued here.
Hey, you wanna play this job we got?
Our buddy, Dennis Thompson, has a great post today about when he got asked to play with the MC5. The shot above, found on If Charlie Parker Was A Gunslinger, was probably taken not too long after the formation of the Five we came to know & love.
Mar 19, 2009
You can't stop him...
...you can only hope to contain him. The fifth issue of Your Heart Out is ready already. You can download it, as well as all of the back issues, for free, right here. Also, make sure you subscribe to the YHO blog feed as MP3's are offered as well as extra bits & bobs between issues.
As I'm told, "...find out what happens when you take the Main Ingredient, Motors, Malcolm McLaren and Jeanne Moreau, Milva and Morricone, Marilia Medalha, Letta Mbulu, Mark Murphy, Mixed Nuts, Moonshake, Ella Mae Morse, Marcia Griffiths, plot them on a chart and join the dots. It's a bit of an odyssey, but you'll visit some intriguing places along the way."
Its nice to have a couple of movies to look forward to
Where the Wild Things Are, directed by Spike Jonze:
Here's a still from the movie:
Here's a nice video version of the book in case you need a refresher:
The new Jim Jarmusch film, The Limits of Control:
Click here to view the official site of the film.
Here's a still from the movie:
Here's a nice video version of the book in case you need a refresher:
The new Jim Jarmusch film, The Limits of Control:
Click here to view the official site of the film.
Mar 18, 2009
Much better than the Rock HoF, I'm sure
Hat tip to Disney Rollergirl for this:
Mick Jones: The Rock & Roll Public Library
18.03.09 – 18.04.09 at the Chelsea Space, London SW1
Mick Jones, iconic guitarist and songwriter with The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite, and Carbon Silicon, has amassed an impressive collection of the paraphernalia of performance and marketing materials of the bands he has worked with. This archive sits alongside a parallel general collection of books, magazines, videos, ephemera, toys and games which mark out his life, times, and influences. In his west London recording studio and adjoining store, customised stage clothes, instruments, flight cases, records, amplifiers and recording gear, posters, books, boxes of correspondence, photographs and song lyrics, etc all vie for attention in a kind of Aladdin’s cave of popular culture.
In this exhibition, as much of the contents of his west London archive as possible will be transported lock, stock, and barrel to CHELSEA space. The installation of this material will create a remarkable visual spectacle that raises questions about the act of collecting and offers some small insight into the influences and interests of a musician and cultural icon.
For Mick Jones, this will represent a first attempt to unpack, look at, and think about a small proportion of the mass of material he has accumulated and decide what to do next. He envisages this collection one day becoming a freely available resource – a “Rock & Roll Public Library”.
For even more, read this story.
Mar 17, 2009
45 Year Old Posters Surface on Harlem Wall
Thanks to Julie at A Bit of Whatever for pointing this out via the Gothamist:
"As an old building at 117th and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem gets renovated, some pieces of the past are surfacing. Joe Schumacher recently discovered these three old posters, one for a supreme court judge election in Manhattan and the Bronx, another unidentifiable one, and finally one for British Invasion band the Dave Clark 5's performance at the now-closed Paramount Theater. What a nice urban archaeology find! Allegedly the DC5 played the Paramount around the time of one of their many appearances on the Ed Sullivan show in early 1964, just before the theater closed—making these posters about 45 years old!
UPDATE: The blue poster is most likely for the Johnson, Humphrey, Kennedy campaign, as pointed out in the comments."
Mar 15, 2009
Punk Before Punk Was Punk
This is amazing! Read the story of mid 70's rock band Death in today's NY Times. Listen to them play "Politicians In My Eyes." I had never heard of these guys before, but they existed, starting in Detroit as an R&B band in the early 70's, and switching to an up tempo, hard rock style in 1973 after seeing an Alice Cooper show. And yes, they seem to have beaten the Bad Brains and Pure Hell for the mantle of first all black punk band by some time. Incredible.
"The teenage Hackney brothers started playing R&B in their parents’ garage in the early ’70s but switched to hard rock in 1973, after seeing an Alice Cooper show. Dannis played drums, Bobby played bass and sang, and David wrote the songs and contributed propulsive guitar work, derived from studying Pete Townshend’s power-chord wrist technique. Their musicianship tightened when their mother allowed them to replace their bedroom furniture with mikes and amps as long as they practiced for three hours every afternoon. “From 3 to 6,” said Dannis, 54, “we just blew up the neighborhood.”
Mar 14, 2009
Support WFMU
I just made a pledge online to WFMU. Click here to make yours! The pledge drive ends tomorrow, and they need our support this year more than ever!
Louis Armstrong collage book
About a year ago I posted a story from the Paris Review about Louis Armstrong and his penchant for making collages out of just about anything, but especially on his boxes of reel-to-reel tapes which he traveled with constantly.
Thanks to Disneyrollergirl, I've just come to find out that there's now a book of this wonderful artwork available: Satchmo: The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong
Something else for the ol'Amazon wishlist!
Visit the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
Mar 13, 2009
Friday ephemera - Del Byzanteens
Despite what you might read, they were not a No Wave band. Post punk, maybe. New Wave, maybe. No Wave? Definitely not. Learn your genres, kids!
Del Byzanteens on YouTube
Del Byzanteens on Myspace
Del Byzanteens on Wikipedia
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