Sin-e and Tonic: さようなら

This is getting repetitive. Sin-e is closing, and Tonic is closing.

Link updates

Finally got around to updating some of my links today. Besides adding "Ask the Punk Professor," I cleaned up the photography links, some of which have changed. Check 'em out!

Randy Reports From SxSW 2007

The following finally just came in from our friend Randy - his full write up of his adventures in Austin this year at SxSW. Entertaining as always.

Here’s the link to his article: http://www.playbackstl.com/content/view/5940/158/ (be sure to click on “Next” at the bottom of the first page in order to see reports for the second and third days of the festival).

And here’s the link to his complete SXSW photo album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldofrandsom/

You can scan the right side of the homepage to see the various SXSW-related sets. There’s lots of great stuff, including Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las, the Reigning Sound, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Buzzcocks, the Saints, IAMX, Pipettes, Fratellis, Cinematics, Bat For Lashes, Wayne Coyne, the Automatic, Hugh Cornwell, Jamie T, New Violators, Ra Ra Riot, the Young Lords, Young Love, etc.

If you were at SXSW ’07, enjoy reminiscing. If you weren’t able to make it, hoist a beer, grab a plate of BBQ, and use your imagination!

The Power of Soul Compels You

From the Village Voice, an article by Rob Harvilla on the wonders of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.

As quickly, blithely, and painlessly as possible, let us now dispense with the obligatory SXSW recap.

Too much brisket. No vegetables. Splendid weather. Margarita-derived catastrophes, David Byrne sightings. T-shirts that read "Welcome to Austin—Don't Forget to Leave." Friends who decline to meet up because "I'm waiting for the drugs to take hold." (Female) cab drivers who apologize for farting. And, oh yeah, lotsa dull-ass sweet-dude indie guitar rock. "I hate music," a dear friend of mine (ostensibly in the music industry) has taken to declaring lately, often when confronted with perfectly competent but deeply boring buzz bands with names like Ghostland Observatory and Illinois. Someone please bring forth the jam.

Onto all of this, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings dropped like a bomb.

Baseball Just Around the Corner!

Baseball season begins on Sunday. In honor of this annual rite of Spring and hope, we bring you the following YouTube gem, found via one of my favorite blogs, UniWatch.



My only question is why is the Red Sox banner behind him backwards?

Two-Thirds Of The Jam Reuniting For Tour

This slightly old news at this point but thought it worth posting. From Billboard.com, a story about Rick Buckler & Bruce Foxton touring the UK as "From the Jam: Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler."

The Jam bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler are reuniting for a tour, minus the group's most famous member, Paul Weller, under the moniker "From the Jam: Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler." The duo, who will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Jam's debut, "In the City," will be joined by singer/guitarist Russell Hastings and guitarist/keyboardist Dave Moore on a U.K. that runs through May.

The summer dates listed there, were recently appended with todays announcement of some more UK winter dates (courtesy of cmumusicnetwork.co.uk:

THE JAM TOUR

'The Jam' have announced a 21 date winter tour, possibly due to the great response to their summer dates, which have been selling out pretty quickly. I say 'The Jam', as opposed to The Jam, because as previously reported, only Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler are involved, because Paul Weller, of course, sees no point in a reunion. In fact, he said that he'd have to be "destitute" before he'd be moved do it. I expect Foxton and Buckler are slightly closer to destitution than Weller, so perhaps that's why they do see the point. Not that I'm saying that they're actually broke or
anything - I suspect they're nothing of the sort. And even less so now, what with
all these sell out gigs and all.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, tickets on sale tomorrow at 9am, press
info from Noble PR. And here are the new dates:

24 Nov: Plymouth Pavilions
25 Nov: Cardiff St Davids Hall
26 Nov: Grimsby Auditorium
27 Nov: Liverpool Carling Academy
29 Nov: Glenrothes Rothes Halls
30 Nov: Preston 53 Degrees
1 Dec: Leicester De Montfort Hall
3 Dec: Leeds Met Students Union
4 Dec: Nottingham Rock City
5 Dec: Manchester Academy
8 Dec: Sheffield Octagon
9 Dec: Bristol Carling Academy
11 Dec: Southampton Guildhall
12 Dec: Norwich UEA
14 Dec: Newcastle Carling Academy
15 Dec: Glasgow Carling Academy
16 Dec: Cambridge Corn Exchange
18 Dec: Birmingham Carling Academy
19 Dec: London Kentish Town Forum
21 Dec: Brighton Centre

Old Town Records founder Hyman Weiss dies

From my friend, Andy S, who periodically sends me interesting items:

A pioneer of the New York indie label scene of the Fifties and an unforgettable character, Hyman "Hy" Weiss has died at age 83. Knowledgeable sources inform me that Hy (whom I never met) had suffered for years from Alzheimer's. I believe that funeral services were held in Manhattan although I did not attend.

(1) Obit from the Hollywood Reporter (courtesy of Monica Lynch)

Old Town Records founder Hyman Weiss dies

March 22, 2007 - Staff Report

Hyman "Hy" Weiss, a throwback to the golden age of the independent record men, died Tuesday. He was 83.

Weiss was born Feb. 12, 1923, in Romania in and grew up in the Bronx. With his bulging Rolodex of industry contacts, he lived the life of a record man into his final days.

Starting out in 1948, he learned the intricacies of the record business as a swashbuckling salesman for three pioneering indie labels: Exclusive (run by Leon Rene), Modern (the Bihari brothers) and Apollo (Bess Berman). During an eventful sojourn with Jerry Blaine's Cosnat Distributors, Weiss formed Old Town Records with his brother Sam in 1953 before going full time alone in 1956.

During the next decade, Old Town was in its prime as Hy Weiss tapped into the rich R&B and doo-wop culture of Harlem and other areas. His biggest hits were "There's a Moon Out Tonight" by the Capris (No. 3, 1961), "Let the Little Girl Dance" by Billy Bland (No. 7, 1960), "So Fine" by the Fiestas (No. 11, 1959), "Dear One" by Larry Finnegan (No. 11, 1962), "Remember Then" by the Earls (No. 24, 1963) and "We Belong Together" by Robert & Johnny (No. 32, 1958).

Other acts on Old Town and subsidiaries -- which included the Barry Records label, named after his son Barry Weiss, now president and CEO of the Zomba Label Group -- included Hector Rivera, the Solitaires, the Harptones, Larry Dale, Bob Gaddy, Rosco Gordon, Titus Turner, Buddy & Ella Johnson and Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry.

[Following my wedding to Leslie Rondin on 8/26/1995, a blues band featuring guitarist Larry Dale and pianist Bob Gaddy performed at a cocktail reception in the Delegates Dining Room of the United Nations. -- A.S.]

With the changing times in the 1960s, Weiss concentrated on pushing heartthrob ballad singer Arthur Prysock in an independent production deal with MGM-Verve that included a well-respected album with the Count Basie Orchestra, among numerous other successful Prysock albums on Old Town proper. Thereafter, Weiss homed in on the reissue market, leading to licensing deals with Atlantic, Rhino, Collectables, Ace (London) and P-Vine (Japan).

His masters were featured in such movies as Pleasantville, La Bamba, A Bronx Tale and many others. He also spent much of 1972-74 actively consulting for and operating Stax Records in Memphis during its heyday. He worked closely with label founders Jim Stewart and Al Bell and such artists as Isaac Hayes, Luther Ingram, the Staple Singers, Johnny
Taylor, Rufus Thomas and Albert King.

Soon after his wife Roz died in 1996, Weiss sold Old Town Records and the affiliated Maureen Music publishing company to Music Sales of New York.

Said Barry Weiss, who is carrying on the Weiss family tradition in the music industry: "Beyond the typical reasons why I am proud to be my father's son, I am proud in a business sense to be the son of one of our industry's great original independent record men and entrepreneurs. Along with peers such as George Goldner, Leonard Chess and Jerry Wexler, he set the pace and helped set the course for today's music industry."

In addition to his son, Weiss is survived by brothers Sam and George, daughters Maureen and Pam, and four grandchildren.

Addendum to the obit:

-- Hy grew up on 169th Street between Third and Fulton Avenues in the Bronx and attended DeWitt Clinton High School.

-- As a staff sergeant in the Army Air Corps in WWII, he was stationed on Iwo Jima.

-- Following his discharge, Hy returned to New York. In a 1996 interview, he told journalist James Spady: "I was a bouncer...in the White Rose Bar, 134th Street and Third Avenue. The owner would pay me with a cross [on the check] where the name is...He owned four square blocks of Manhattan territory but couldn't spell."

-- Hy's first short-lived label venture came in 1949 when Billboard announced the debut of Parody Records, "owned by Sam and Hy Weiss." First release was "Butter Beans and Rice" b/w "Come Back" by Danny Taylor (Parody 1002/3).

-- "Old Town" was the name of a New York manufacturer of duplicating machines and carbon paper. Sam Weiss was a salesman there in 1953. Sam and Hy called their label "Old Town" so that they could use the company's letterhead with its prestigious Madison Avenue address. In fact, their label was run from a small office at the Triboro movie theater (on East 125th Street?).

(2) Anecdote courtesy of Monica Lynch, who writes:

"Someone I know went to the funeral and had this report:

"Lance Freed [son of the late Alan Freed] told a story about going to the Old Town Records office with his dad back in the '50s and being curious about the bare light bulb that was hanging above Hy's desk. He asked Hy about it and was told that they didn't want the office to look too nice lest the artists start thinking the label's making money and coming after them for royalties."

[Over the decades, this anecdote has been told in several different versions. In one, Hy insists on having only three of the four walls of his office repainted; in another, he uses a swivel chair with four legs but only three castors. -- A.S.]

(3) From the liner notes of the definitive 2-CD compilation Hy Weiss Presents Old Town Records (Ace UK, 2003)

(a) From Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records:

"Hymie, my goombah, you are a survivor. A connoisseur of the street, the jobbers, the hustlers, the syndicators and backbiters, the unknown stockroom, the chargeback, the freebie, the cut-rate studio -- Platonic idea of the indomitable underfinanced indie, rising Phoenix-like from the ashes of insolvency time and again. Our friendship is older than Old Town and I can never forget that you saved me from a costly Prysockian mistake. Congratulations on your brilliant offspring -- and prevailing against heavy odds."

(b) From Richard Barrett, songwriter, producer, vocalist (the Valentines) and a key figure in the rise of both Frankie Lyman & the Teenagers and the Three Degrees, among other groups:

"Here's a guy I met in the early Fifties. Under strange circumstances. At the time, Hy wanting a hit record and the Valentines just needing a good record. We almost got what each other wanted. If you know Hy, you know there was turbulence and drama. He being 'bull headed' and then me being 'hard headed.' It was a formula for a perfect marriage. As in life, this was short-lived and ended in divorce....

"Throughout my tenure [in the music business], Hy seemed to always be somewhere in the background. As a thorn in George Goldner's side, because that's whom I went with after the Old Town experience. Then one dark day in the Fifties, Hy and I engaged in some heavy drama. Which secured his respect for me.

"To get money out of Hy Weiss was like pulling teeth out of a chicken. Yet to have him as a friend, he would give you the shirt off his back. Hy was in business, miserable. But you couldn't have a better friend. He's a good man. I will always care for him."

[Richard Barrett died 8/3/2006 of pancreatic cancer. -- A.S.]

Stupefaction Musical Style - 3/25/07

Download "Chips - Chicken - Banana Split" (mp3)
from "Jamaica To Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974"
by Jo-Jo And The Fugitives
Light In The Attic

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at Insound

More On This Album


From allmusic.com: Canada had a sizable resettled West Indian population by the 1960s, particularly in the Toronto area, making it a destination stop for touring Jamaican musicians, many of whom decided to relocate there, and a vibrant scene that mixed Jamaican rhythms with Northern R&B, soul and funk grew up around them, a scene that was essentially hidden from the rest of the world. This wonderful sampler of rare period singles from assorted Canadian labels lifts the veil on all of that to reveal music with an uncommon energy and vitality, and the real wonder here is that these tracks weren't massive international hits. Side after side bristles with a funky brilliance, beginning with Jo-Jo and the Fugitives' rough and ragged "Fugitive Song," originally released in 1968 on Cobra Records, followed immediately by Eddie Spencer's impressive "If This Is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely)," which sounds like a great and long lost Motown single. The Cougars' stark nyahbinghi take on the Temptations' "I Wish It Would Rain" is a stunning reconstruction of the song, and it is amazing to learn that this version was never even been released. Once heard, the Cougars' version makes the Temptations original -- great as it is -- sound oddly uninspired. It is important to note here that most of these tracks aren't necessarily reggae, falling more to the hard soul side of the spectrum, and the best of them are delightfully energetic hybrids which, like the Cougars' "I Wish It Would Rain," work both sides of the fence in an impressive synthesis, Count Ossie meets Motown if you will. Great stuff.

TSOP - the Sound of Philadephia (or MFSB Where Are You?)

While trolling youtube looking for something by MFSB, specifically their classic track TSOP (which has to be one of my all time favorites of any music genre), I came across this fun version of the same song by the WCU Marching Band. I like the arrangement:



And then, there is the sped up, cheesy version of the song by the Three Degrees where they only sing the "do do" part towards the end. They also had done the vocals on the original. From the looks of it, it must be from some sort of television appearance. It's pure, unadulterated seventies. The perfect example of when good disco goes bad:



The original 45:

Emanuel tells freshmen to avoid Stephen Colbert

Appearing on Colbert is the only time some of these people seem human! Now, of course, congressional freshman are being told that it might be a good idea not to appear on his show. Boo!

"Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman, has told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Stephen Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, “The Colbert Report.”

“He said don’t do it … it’s a risk and it’s probably safer not to do it,” said Rep. Steve Cohen. But the freshman lawmaker from Tennessee taped a segment that last week was featured in the 32nd installment of the “Better Know a District” series. Colbert asked Cohen whether he was a black woman. He isn’t."

Read the story here.

New Kevin Rowland & Dexy's track!

Visit Kevin Rowland's official myspace page to hear a brand song called "It's Okay, Joanna."

Huzza!

p.s. Thats a darn fine suit he's wearing...

It's such a joke, so how come I'm not laughing?

The rock & roll hall of fame is completely irrelevant...Read a nice write-up of this year's inductions from the Village Voice by Tom Breihan. He makes some good points.

"...the Hall of Fame is yet another lame attempt at boomerish canonization of a music too chaotic to neatly congeal into a discrete set of recognizable innovators. When a body comes along and declares itself the end-all objective pantheon for this music, that body is inherently suspect."

And in honor of the R&R Hall, I reprint this 2006 response from the Sex Pistols upon their induction:


Rock & roll is dead...long live rock & roll.

Lou Reed - more dates for Berlin!

Lou Reed has announced a series of European tour dates on which he'll perform, for the first time, the entirety of his somewhat legendary 1973 album 'Berlin' accompanied by a thirty piece ensemble including his band and a string and horn section, plus the New London Children's Choir. He'll play two London dates at the Hammersmith Apollo on 30 Jun and 1 Jul. And don't go thinking you can see this any old time. This tour's a one off. Oh yes. Listen to Mr Lou Reed, here's what he says about the upcoming tour: "I only do this every thirty years. One time, one time only. You can tell you kids you saw Lou Reed's Berlin."

The tour will also call at Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin (I should think so!), Lyon, Rome, and Arezzo. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am.

Barack Obama

Click here:

Time Wasting Dub

This is fantastic...if you have a few minutes to kill, go over to the Infinite Wheel and create your very own dub sounds. It was designed by one of the guys from Pigbag.

Fantastic!

New York City 1975-1977 was the best scene ever

There are lots of great candidates for the "Best Scene Ever" list (I HATE lists) but a great case can be made for this one. Read all of the comments after the article - everyone has a suggestion or a personal favorite. Personally I'd have extended the time frame a bit into the early 80's.

"With hip-hop being born in the South Bronx, Talking Heads and Television at CBGB's and disco at Studio 54, what other musical era could possibly compare? Fire up the Tardis!"

By Jon Wilde, read it in the Guardian.

Read About Gilbert Arenas

Read about Gilbert Arenas.

“My favorite player growing up was Penny Hardaway. Even though he was shy and didn’t talk very much, he had that ‘Li’l Penny’ character — those commercials he did with Chris Rock. That was funny. It’s the same now with those LeBron James commercials. You want to find out who these people actually are. You don’t want to hear them say, ‘I work hard,’ and all that stuff. Everybody has that story. I’d rather know what someone eats for dinner or what they order at Starbucks.”

Then read his blog.

Listen To The Rammellzee