Strummer loved Springsteen

It's not time for Friday Ephemera, but I had to post this very cool bit of ephemeral rock history (courtesy of the wonderful Letters of Note). It's a 1997 fax response from Joe Strummer to a documentary film maker discussing his opinion of Bruce Springsteen. The film was a 1998 UK television production called Bruce Springsteen: A Secret History.

"We need people like this..." Indeed.

Daily travels - Hudson NY

Just Because - Leadbelly

Friday Ephemera

171 Avenue A - A rehearsal & recording studio run by a friend to early NYC hardcore, Jerry Williams. Most notable for the Bad Brains debut album being recorded there, as well as the Beastie Boys debut, the Polly Wog Stew EP. It was also the original location of the first Ratcage Records store & label.

Tim Burton at MOMA

Something I wanted to mention here...I'm not even close to the worlds biggest Tim Burton fan, but I found myself at MOMA this past Monday with a friend who wanted to see the current exhibition that's running. I have to say it's an impressive show - a real feast for the eyes. Sculptures (for lack of a better term), sketches, paintings, designs, ephemera, pieces of movie costumes, video & animation, a lifetime of work, Burton is one busy and creative guy. I definitely suggest making a point of seeing the show.

November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street New York, NY 10019
(212) 708-9400

Daily travels

Uptown R-train:

X (the band) calendar

Just wanted to let everyone know that I received my copy of the 2010 calendar put together by photographer Michael Hyatt, and X vocalist Exene Cervenka, and it's beautiful. If you're shopping online this weekend, don't forget about it - it would well be worth the $20 (postage included). For ordering info click here.

Daily travels

30 Saint Marks, New York, NY

Easy come, easy go

Thanks to Crawdaddy for turning me on to this Muppets video. Can you imagine the fun they had recording the vocals? Happy thanksgiving everyone...

Archive of Contemporary Music sale time

It's that time of the year again - the bi-annual ARChive of Contemporary Music sale which is ALWAYS excellent! And if you're a fan of the Facebook, please become a fan of the ARChive there on their new Facebook page.

Please join your pals at The ARChive for their twice a year, once in a lifetime, Record + CD Sale. We sold EVERYTHING at our last sale, so this year 100% of the sale items are new stock!

As always — lotsa good stuff, New CDs, ol’ LPs, cassettes, posters, books, video, plus plenty of X-mas recordings. More Good LPs, in great condition, than EVER BEFORE – world, pop, punk, jazz. To be expected — great things at great prices. Boxes and boxes and boxes of LPs for a buck per LP!

NEW THIS YEAR
• The BEST LPs, many in near perfect condition
• Never before offerd Jazz, World and Rock LPs. Classic LPs in great condition.
• Boxes of DVD movies and even some Laserdiscs
• More 7″ singles than ever before
• As always Broadway cast and film soundtrack LPs.

Over 15,000 recordings for sale — sealed, mint, used, rare, new, whatever

PLUS the AstroTurf yardsale featuring great 50s retro kitchenware and the ‘le Chic’ collection of lounge singer dresses and streetware.

The sale is a cash only event. Most of the recordings for sale are pop & rock. And don’t forget, CDs are NEW donations from record companies, NOT used, returns or defects.

Prices
Most LPs: $1 – Collectible LPs: prices below book + internet value
CD are gettin’ rare these days, but we still have hundreds at $1, many new CDs at $4 or below, while the JUST released + HOT CDs are $5 – $10. All new cassettes: $1.00 (12 for $10)
New this year Classical LPs $1 each – older, hanging around Classical LPs are 50¢ each

Where?
54 White Street, ground floor
Three blocks south of Canal, between Church and Broadway

Traveling by Subway?
Take the 1 to Franklin Street, or the A, C, or E to Canal & Church or the J, M, N, R, Z, or 6 to Canal & Lafayette.

By the way…
We offer gift certificates to shop at the ARC – for that very special vinyl-ite in your life!

ARC items for sale

Volume One
Punk/new-wave discography
200 pages, paperback, OP – signed, with original postcard announcement $25

Fine 45 adapter jewelry and pins created by longtime ARC friend, Pam Meyer, for Alchemy

Mudd Club revisited

Steve Lewis, arbiter of NYC nightclub history (both past & current) has a very interesting interview with former Mudd Club employee, and current artist, Richard Boch, over at his Goodnight Mr. Lewis column at BlackBookMag.com.

"Any trip down the memory lane of nightclubs must pass by the Mudd Club. It opened in October 1978 and was the best joint in town -- some say the best ever. When it closed in 1983, it had morphed from the chicest of places to a punk/hipster haven. Any visit to the Mudd, even as a memory, must go through a door manned by Richard Boch. Mudd was located below Canal at the end of an alley at 77 White Street. At the time it was unimaginable that people could live down there, as it was a domain of rats and bag people with frequent visits from the new culture of graffiti artists. The music was rock and roll, and the crowds were punks and rock stars and rock stars who were punks, plus an uptown crowd slumming for flesh or drugs. Movie stars came through with their apricot scarves and that rarest of commodities: cash. It was a time before we thought of AIDS, and only Betty Ford went to rehab. Orgies and drugs in tenement squats were a common end to an evening on the town. There were few designer labels, save for Trash & Vaudeville or Natasha or Levi’s. But everybody wanted to get into the Mudd Club." Continued here.


That's Richard Boch holding the chain in front of the Mudd, summer of 1979. Photo courtesy of the incredible Allan Tannenbaum.

Rock Hall in Columbus Circle

It's not often that I might actually want or need to go to the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, but this week there is actually a reason. Through Nov. 29, photographer Kevin Mazur is exhibiting some work which follows the recent 25th Anniversary concert for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden. The exhibit contain shots from the concert of Mick Jagger & Bono (above), Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox, Simon & Garfunkel, CSN&Y, Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Beck, Jerry Lee Lewis, Smokey Robinson, Dion & quite a few others. I have to say, although the subject matter is a bit more commercial than I'm used to checking out, the work is impressive. Walking through the exhibit, there is a definite "you are there" feeling to the photos.

Also on display are different pieces of rock history such as you might see at the Rock Hall itself, like stage clothing from the likes of Bono, Bruce Springsteen, & Mick Jagger. But besides the photography which is my main interest, what definitely caught my eye were some Stevie Wonder master tapes from the mid 70's, a Gretsch guitar played by David Crosby at the Monterey Pop Festival, and a BB King handwritten set list. Again, the show is up through Sunday, Nov. 29.

And of course, it was hard to miss, but this is all leading up to Sunday's HBO broadcast of the actual concert itself at 8:00PM (eastern) on Sunday night. It just might be worth checking out.

99X to close!

Ugh! Thanks to EV for the news. Where will I buy my Vans now? This really sucks! The history of this store goes back nearly 30 years when it was started as part of the 99 Records shop at 99 MacDougal Street in 1980 or so. Visit their website here.

Bullet

Meant to post this yesterday...

Gigi does Chelsea

The above graphic & film are both the work of Josh Gosfield whose exhibit, GIGI, THE BLACK FLOWER, closes this week at Steven Kasher Gallery on November 25 at 521 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011

Tony Clifton in NYC

Sometime Andy Kaufman associate, Tony Clifton, recently made a rare appearance right here in NYC at Santos Party House. Our friend Randy was there to catch all of the action. Take it away, Randy:

Originally the creation of the late comedian Andy Kaufman, TONY CLIFTON is a down-on-his-luck former Vegas entertainer, a holdover from the '60s and '70s when raunchy jokes and burlesque ruled the nightclub circuit. Tony might be called an “elimination comedian” because his questionable humor and bizarre stories are meant to make any politically correct member of his his audience run for the exit. Also, Tony sings, A LOT, and let's just say his voice is .... well ... lacking.

To my knowledge, Tony Clifton hasn't played New York in the past decade ... heck, maybe even the past TWO decades. And no one was sure who was behind the unkempt wig and prosthetic nose at this show -- was it actually Kaufman’s old cohort and biographer Bob Zmuda? That might have been the case since Zmuda has a new book out next month about his relationship with Kaufman.

When Tony took the stage at 10:30, his audience numbered between 150-200. When I left, shortly after 2:00 AM, about 30 diehards were still gazing at the full-tilt Tony in amazement. From a glance at his setlist, it looked like he had at least another hour of songs to perform. Click here to finish reading & see Randy's set of photos from the evening.

Here's an old clip of Mr. Clifton on the Muppet Show:

Alan Vega getting hopped up at Brooklyn Public Library

In the continuing promotion of his new book, All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77, author Tony Fletcher has yet another discussion/reading scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Brooklyn Public Library with the one and only, true rock & roll hero, Alan Vega. As enticing as his other events have been, this for me is the one!

Thursday, December 10 at 7:00PM
Brooklyn Public Library - Central Library
Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718-230-2100

Read a nice round up of Tony's recent promotional shenanigans at iJamming. Included is Jim Fouratt catching Tom Verlaine browsing through books at the Strand which is sort of special if you're a Television fan.

Just in time...

...for the holidays: There are lots of new CD's available in my Amazon shop at insanely low prices. Have a look here. See anything you like? I'm willing to make deals too.

MIckey Leigh & Legs McNeil at Barnes & Noble

Thanks to Grieve for the tip. And as he mentions, it is Independent Bookstore Week. As Jeremiah wrote, "go visit an indie and buy their books -- before it's too late."

Konk - new album & free download!

Our buddies from Konk (myspace link here) are back in action, sort of...Next Tuesday sees two new digital releases from them!

Live at CBGB November 6, 1981, is an amazing concert recording that captures this influential 80's downtown NYC band in it's prime. I know because I've heard some of it, and it's hot! Also, their four-song EP “Your Life” (originally released in 1984 on Sleeping Bag Records) will be made available for the first time ever digitally.

Until next Tuesday, a free download of "Your Life" will have to hold you over - courtesy of our friends at the Other Music Digital store. Download it here.

Lastly, Konk's music is being featured in a film from director, Pedro Almodovar, and starring Penelope Cruz, entitled La concejala antropófaga (that's The Cannibalistic Councillor in English).

La Concejala Antropofaga Pedro Almodovar English Subtitles
by girlbitespenblog

We are ugly but we have the music

Visit the New York Nobody Sings for recent posts by me on the UK Subs and Leonard Cohen.

Kool Keith & Tom Waits - Spacious Thoughts

Thanks to M. Zip for the tip!

Lou, Doug & Mo

Lou, Doug & Mo image courtesy of LouReed.org.

Here's an interesting event happening at the New York Public Library of all places on December 8. The description is pretty vague as to what exactly will be happening, but Lou Reed, Doug Yule & Maureen Tucker will be there. I would guess that they'll be talking to David Fricke who seems to be the host.

I have to say, for the NY Public Library, you'd think they would have a better written event description. Very odd, but you can read the whole thing here.

The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, Maureen ‘Mo’ Tucker, Doug Yule & David Fricke

Tuesday, December 8, 2009
at 7:00 PM
Celeste Bartos Forum
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
5th Avenue and 42nd Street (directions)

$25 general admission and $15 library donors, students and seniors with valid identification."

Buy tickets here.

Personally, I'm a little overdosed on some of this stuff right now, so I'll leave you with this:

Daily travels

On White Street between Broadway & Church, NYC

X marks the date

Here's a unique rock & roll gift suggestion for yourself, or that special someone in your life who happens to be an X fan. It's a revived collaboration between photographer Michael Hyatt, and X vocalist, Exene Cervenka. Here's the blurb:

"In 1982 we created the first Gallery 1331 Xerography Calendar featuring Michael's photographs and Exene's graphics illustrating dates of musical and historical importance. Because 2010's calendar matches 1982 accurately, except for moon phases, we have created the 2010 Gallery 1331 "X" Calendar that reprises Exene's 1982 graphics and features 19 of Michael's best photographs of X shot 1980-1983.

Some of these photographs are part of the Lucky 13 X Box Set of Postcards. That limited edition of 1300 sets is nearly sold out. Only 51 sets are still available at $13 each, plus $2 postage. The 2010 calendar is priced at $20, postage paid. Order both by December 31st and pay no postage. Enjoy all of 2010 with X the band photographs and Exene's graphics, plus bonus information about Leslie Caldera's 30th Anniversary Commemorative "X" Stamps featuring Michael's photographs."

I can personally speak to the high quality of the merchandise as I purchased a set of Michael's X postcards a while back, and was really happy with what I received. Visit his website or email him here to order.


Exene on tour somewhere in Texas, December 1980, courtesy of Michael Hyatt

And while we're at it, X has a new digital single out for Christmas, I mean Xmas, called Merry Xmas from X (Jingle Bells b/w Santa Claus Is Coming To Town). You can sample and buy it from iTunes, eMusic, or Amazon.

Lipstick Traces goes to college

Possibly lost amongst all of the crazy goings on recently, or just not as well publicized, is this cool event happening Thursday evening up at Columbia University. The lecture should run about 40 minutes, along with a Q&A, and book signing.

Greil Marcus in Lipstick Traces: Live
Thursday, November 19
Free and open to the public

In Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Greil Marcus delved into the cross-currents, tangles, and whirlpools that made such vastly different movements as dada, lettrism, the Situationist International, and punk part of a single current. To mark the just-published 20th-anniversary edition of the book, Columbia University presents Greil Marcus in a one-man performance of Lipstick Traces. The event will take place on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at Altschul Auditorium, 420 West 118th Street.

In addition, the Music & Arts Library at Columbia University will display books by Marcus, books that influenced him, and posters, records, and other materials courtesy of the ARChive of Contemporary Music. The exhibition will be on display from November 1 to December 15, 2009 at The Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library, 7th floor of Dodge Hall, at 2960 Broadway.

Greil Marcus is the author of Mystery Train (1975/2008), Dead Elvis (1991), The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes (1997), The Dustbin of History (1995), Like a Rolling Stone (2005), The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy in the American Voice (2006), and other books. With Werner Sollers he is the co-editor of A New Literary History of America, published this fall by Harvard, and the editor of Best Music Writing 2009, published this fall by Da Capo. The first records editor at Rolling Stone, in 1969, in recent years he has taught at Berkeley, Princeton, & Minnesota; this fall he is teaching “Music as Democratic Speech, from the Commonplace Song to Bob Dylan” at the New School.

A book signing will follow the event. Lipstick Traces: Live is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Columbia Libraries, the ARChive of Contemporary Music, and the Arts Initiative at Columbia University.

Just Because - Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth

By John Florea, 1941, via

Keep putting soul up

Out November 24, Daptone Gold is a 23 track compilation featuring rarities, classics and previously unreleased tracks from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Budos Band, Binky Griptite, Lee Fields, Antibalas and more. Get it November 24th from Daptone Records.

In other funky news, if you have an iPhone, you can take Daptone with you. They now have a free Daptone Records application which you can download from iTunes here.

More photography exhibition news

Eastern Air Lines stewardess Nancy Price with ex-Army Air Force pilot and aspiring actor Michael Mindlin in Times Square, 1946, photographer: Hy Peskin. From the Museum of the City of New York, LOOK Collection

There's just an embarrassment of riches happening right now in NYC with all of the photography exhibits going on. Besides the classic The Americans by Robert Frank showing at the Met right now through January 3, there is another special show coming up at the Museum of the City of New York looking at the incredible shots by the photographers of Look Magazine.

Only in New York: Photographs from LOOK Magazine will run Nov. 17 through Jan. 10, and is a must for anyone interested in the golden age of black & white photography along the lines of Life Magazine. Incredible!


Young lovers, 1946, photographer: Stanley Kubrick. From the Museum of the City of New York, LOOK Collection

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No

A true story brought to you by the good folks at No Mas:



"In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis’ legendary LSD no-hitter. In the past few years we've heard all too much about performance enhancing drugs from greenies to tetrahydrogestrinone, and not enough about performance inhibiting drugs. If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 no-hitters ever thrown in the Big Leagues, we can only guess how many were aided by steroids, but we can say without question that only one was ever thrown on acid."

Machine Gun gets good letters

"When I started 7th grade in the fall of '69 I was lost - new school, bullied by the derelicts in my neighborhood, turned on by my other neighborhood "friends". I was a wreck, and the only thing that helped me survive psychologically was music. The MC5 and Blue Cheer became my best friends that fall."

This is what it's all about.

Bande à part: Reminder and Request

Although the exhibit opened a couple of days ago, the official opening is this Saturday, so I thought I'd remind everyone. I know Godlis will be there, and I'm sure most of the other contributors to the book will be there as well.

If there are any Stupefaction readers out there who go, and would like to contribute to the blog, please feel free to snap some photos & send me a write up of the evening. I won't be there.

Godlis at Barnes & Noble last night

Godlis' photo stamp of authenticity inspired by...



Last nights' event at the 66th St/Broadway Barnes & Noble was a lot of fun. Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic History, 1955-Present author/curator, Gail Buckland, and legendary NYC music photographer, Godlis, put on the great show.

Things started with Buckland doing a short talk & reading about her love of photography, and her life long pursuit in studying it, as well as her ongoing attempts to bring music photographers, specifically, into the pantheon of great and artistic photography. So far, so good, Gail!



This was followed by a wonderful, and very funny, slideshow and talk by Godlis that covered his life & career in photography. He discussed many of his influences, and was able to describe what he saw in his head as he took many of his famous shots...and all delivered with a slightly dry, down to earth sense of humor & fun, which always makes him a pleasure to spend time with.


Godlis with Bob Gruen who was in the audience, and later joined Godlis & Buckland at the book signing table.


If this were Creem Magazine there would be a funny caption here.


Godlis, Gail Buckland, and Bob Gruen