Binky Philips featured in May issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine

Friend of the blog, Binky Philips (a man not above some self-promotion), is being featured in the current issue of Vintage Guitar magazine, along with a swell cover story on Mike Bloomfield. Binky has one of the better vintage guitar collections I've ever seen, and its definitely worth a look. Vintage Guitar is currently making things free to see/read digitally, starting with this this issue. Click the link below to read it, or pick an actual copy up at Barnes & Noble, Guitar Center, or your local guitar shop.

Vintage Guitar Free Digital Issue

Also read Binky on Bloomfield for Huffington Post

Five By Five: Year End Favorites, Part 3

 

I put out the call to some friends for a simple list of five favorites from the year...anything: events, concerts, recordings, personal moments, whatever. The title is in honor of the first responder, Andrew Loog Oldham, being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A big congratulations to him! This is the third of three installments. HUGE Stupefied thanks to everyone who contributed, and to everyone who takes the time to have a look at Stupefaction...Happy holidays all!

 

Gillian McCain -  semi-off the top of my head:

1. Alice Munro receiving Nobel Prize
2. Matte magazine
3. And Every Day Was Overcast by Paul Kwiatkowski (Black Balloon Publishing)
4. Megan Cump's photography
5. Ann, a one-woman show written and performed by Holland Taylor about former Texan Governor Ann Richards

Liz Maher - 2013 - not such a great year. I nominate sleep as the best thing of the year:

Arctic Monkeys - AM - Good Pop-thump, thump, thump…
My Bloody Valentine - MBV
Black Angels - Indigo Meadow - Maybe 3 very good songs, several other ok songs
Queens of the Stone Age -...Like Clockwork
Beyonce - Beyonce over Sadat X "We In New York" because I'm going mall over street
British Sea Power - Machineries of Joy
Prince - "Screwdriver", "Breakfast Can Wait" and "Da Bourgeoisie"
Daft Punk Random - Access Memories
London Grammar - If You Wait
Lorde - Pure Heroine - I admire Lorde's contempt
The Wytches - Beehive Queen & "Digsaw"

Ed Ward - 
 

1. Einstein on the Beach at the Netherlands Opera, 1/11/13. Never thought I'd get to see this, and then the opportunity and means to do it dropped into my lap. Astounding. 

2. Leaving Europe after 20 years. When I moved to France in 2008 after 15 years in Germany, I was happy to be there. At the same time, Amy Rigby and Eric Goulding were pulling up and moving back to the U.S. I didn't understand this, but five years later, I do: it was evident that the people who run France do not want Americans living there, despite what other French people think. So I'm not.

3. Mick Farren dies a very rock and roll death. Never met him, never really had any back-and-forth with him. Introduced to his blog through Stupefaction, though, and he felt like part of the family. Shocking he went so young, but coming off-stage at a gig? Coulda been lots worse. 

4. Dan Penn: The Fame Demos. Lotta wisdom in these three-minute pieces. 

5. The tamale lady: A couple of weeks after I moved into my place here in Texas, the doorbell rang on a cold day and a little woman with an insulated bag offered me a dozen chicken tamales for ten dollars. She's come back several times since. The tamales are stupendous, and she's made me feel like I'm tied in, some way, to my neighbors here. It's a start.



Andy Schwartz - 

1.     SPRING BREAKERS [movie written & directed by Harmony Korine]

2.     THE DOUBLE [novel by George Pelecanos]

3.     FRUITVALE STATION [movie written & directed by Ryan Coogler]

4.     THE GEATOR PRESENTS “THE DIVAS OF ALL TIME” [concert hosted by Jerry Blavat a/k/a “The Geator With The Heater” – Kimmel Center, Philadelphia PA. With Darlene Love, Freda Payne, Candi Staton, The Tymes, Baby Washington, Blue Magic, and The Soul Survivors]

5.     A.K.A. DOC POMUS [documentary directed by William Hechter & Peter Miller]

Binky Philips - 

1. My guitars and playing them with The Planets

2. My new tiny thug cat, Monte Rock IV

3. Women with bare feet

4. NASCAR/The Who (an apropos pairing, no?)

5. Abusing Reefer

I left off my wife and daughter because they are ALL of it put together.

 

 

Binky Philips: My Life In The Ghost of Planets: The Story of a CBGB Almost-Was

Friend of the blog, Binky Philips, was recently honored as his short book, My Life In The Ghost of Planets: The Story of a CBGB Almost-Was, is the lead title in a new series of short e-books being published by Rhino Records. The series was announced earlier this week, and it looks like titles will be retailing for $2.99. For a limited time you can download Binky's book for free!

The book is available in a number of digital formats:

iTunes: here 

Amazon: here

And be sure to visit Rhino's website for the full story as well getting a glance at the other titles (of which Binky's is definitely the most interesting!

IMPORTANT: For about one more week, Rhino is giving this title away for FREE, so get your ass in gear & download it! Below is a neat-o interview with our man:

The Damned at CBGB, April 1977

"After strutting around the stage and openly mocking the New York crowd, suddenly, without warning or even a count in, they launched, catapulted, tore, into "I Feel Alright" by The Stooges. It wasn't the beginning of a song, it was Detonation! Their power, energy, and volume was all simply breathtaking. They slammed into the main riff (sort of a sped up version of "Spoonful") with a frantic and almost desperate ferocity. I can vividly remember sensing the whole of CBGB sort of just collectively gasping, 'Holy Shit!'"

Step back in time to April 8, 1977 with Binky Philips as he attends a Damned show at CBGB. Not just any Damned show, this was the debut performance for any UK punk band in the United States. Binky was there for the first of two sets the Damned played that night (bands used to do those sort of things). Read the whole thing here. Photo courtesy of Ebet Roberts.

Radio Satisfaction

In response to my recent post about "Satisfaction," I received the following email from Binky Philips, and with his permission, I'm sharing it with you. Read more of Binky's amazing stories at SonicBoomers.

Every night, my wife watches Diane Sawyer's World News. Last night, Diane ended her broadcast with the announcement that May 6th was the 45th anniversary of Keith Richards waking up in the middle of the night, taping the main "dada-dadadaa" riff of "Satisfaction" into his mini-recorder that he always kept by his bed, muttering, "I can't get no satisfaction..." and falling back asleep.

One month to the day later, "Satisfaction" was released in the USA on June 6, 1965. By July 10, four weeks later, it was the number one song in America. While it was only number one on Billboard's Top 100 chart for four weeks, on 77 WABC AM, a clear channel station that could be heard for hundreds of miles in every direction, it was the number one record for the entire Summer of 1965. Back then, WABC had a policy of running their 5 minute news breaks at 25 past the hour, and again at 55 minutes past the hour. They also had a strict programming feature of playing the number one song on their chart at the top of every hour. That meant for all of July and August 1965, "Satisfaction" played every hour on the hour on WABC.

I was at Camp Thoreau in Wallkill, New York, for eight weeks the Summer of '65 and I vividly recall a phenomenon I had never experienced before or since. That summer, there were dozens of campers who'd brought transistor radios with them. And every hour on the hour, every transistor radio in camp would suddenly go on, roaring out "Satisfaction" with full blast distortion. It didn't matter whether you were in the rec hall, the art barn, by the lake, down near the creek, in the main house, your bunk, the ball field, the infirmary, the pine forest...You heard "Satisfaction" all day, every day. And you LOVED it. Kids would keep tabs on the time..."Hey, only five more minutes 'til 'Satisfaction'..." It never let up. It never got old.

With the longest hair on any boy, I was acknowledged throughout the whole camp as THE Stones Fanatic. I'd come to camp the year before in '64 crazed about them after their appearance on Hollywood Palace where they were famously insulted by Dean Martin. And I was even worse in 1965. On August 31, about a week after camp was over, I even saw them live with Brian Jones. That's another story...I actually recently got a message on Facebook from another old Thoreau camper telling me that I changed his life 45 years ago by preaching the word about The Rolling Stones.

That summer of '65, I had two counselors, Chuck and Woody (two very cool guys, looking back) who both thought my Stones obsession was endearing. One afternoon, against all the rules, they took me into the counselors' lounge (literally a converted chicken coop) and sat me down and played me Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed... Much as I'd like to claim that I sat there mesmerized, my 12 year old ears couldn't acclimate to the real thing at all. That didn't start happening until I was about 15 or 16. God bless Chuck and Woody for that first taste. But, the truth is, as they kept playing me the real deal, I started to worry that I might miss the 3pm spin of "Satisfaction".

December 1974 - Binky Philips, the Planets and CBGB

One of the nice guys in the NYC rock 'n' roll scene, right up there with Lenny Kaye, I've known Binky Philips since the 1980's when he worked at Sounds Records. In an earlier life, he was the leader of one the first 10 bands to play at CBGB, the Planets. SonicBoomers recently ran a terrific story by Binky on his personal discovery, initial impressions, and experience of the club. If you're interested in the perspective of someone who was there at the beginning, but not one of the bands who "made it," this story is for you. Great stuff!

"We were sitting at a red light on the Bowery at Bleeker St. For as long as I'd been alive, the Bowery was the definitive Skid Row. The most dilapidated and "lost soul" half-mile in New York. Horrible, sad flophouses, filthy dark wino bars, comatose bodies in doorways, 19th century gloom. The taxi was idling in this squalor. I was sitting on the right and turned and looked out the cab's window. Directly across from me was an old-style but spanking new snow-white half-circle awning with old carny-style lettering in red and black. CBGB. Without thinking, I just blurted out "Look guys, a place we might be able to play." There was nothing but that enigmatic name, CBGB, that clicked, but clicked it did. Yet within a week, the December holiday crap started up and we forgot all about CBGB." Continued here.

Binky Philips photo by Lisa Kristal courtesy of CBGB.com.

Further reading courtesy of Binky's seemingly incredible memory:
- On hanging with Gene & Paul in the early days of Kiss
- On almost joining the Heartbreakers, and meeting Johnny Rotten at CBGB
And much more!