Heh. So after - what? - 14 years, Guns ‘N Roses are finally about to release Chinese Democracy - and already the reviews are pretty much saying, Meh. But after so many years, so much mythology - it couldn’t be anything but a letdown, could it?
Hard to imagine they were once the most important band […]

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Featuring the Jam and the Beatles (”Taxman”), paired with The Exxon Singers and “The Spokesmen” (weighing in with “Dawn of Correction,” an “answer” to “Eve of Destruction”), this is a disc every winger can love, embrace, shoot with his multiple firearms or throw into the fire because it’s the devil’s music in the first place.

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This is really, really interesting. I’m no longer much of an Eagles fan, though I own the obligatory greatest-hits discs; sort of went through my “OMG Hotel California roxxx!” phase around age 14 or so and ever since then: eh.
But the band, you might have seen, has new double disc out, and there are only two […]

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And you know, I want to make fun of this. But I can’t make fun of this, because as over-the-hill and Eddie and Diamond Dave may be, as risible as it is that Eddie’s kid is playing bass for the band these days, the absolute truth is that Van Halen always rawked. And, apparently, still […]

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Via MeFi, WXPN 88.5 Philadelphia is counting down the “885 Most Memorable Music Moments” on its blog. They’re only at #779 - but some interesting stuff:

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And the photo is totally stolen from Will Bunch. I can feel my hair grow long just looking at it.
I was always a marginal Zeppelin fan. I’ve got the first four albums - Zeppelin II in particular is a great disc - but after that I more or less lost interest. Back in my classic […]

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Because I’m in the mood. Same album, a little more acoustic. “Believe What You’re Saying.” And I do.
Posting sporadic over the next week or so. Thanks for stopping by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h4-7VD2c24

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This came up on Pandora today. (You do know about Pandora, right?) Bob Mould around 1993 - fuzz guitar and a killer melody. It is one of my favorite things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li4nL-uaJkw

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This had disappeared from YouTube for a while - absolutely devastating version of Keith Richards’ “Happy” from the Stones’ 1972 ”S.T.P.” tour, which may be the best/most storied rock and roll tour of all time. This is from the unreleased film shot on tour by Robert Frank (and once you read about it you understand why […]

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The Arizona music scene has produced some cool artists - I was a fan of the Gin Blossoms in the early ’90s, and I’ve got an old college buddy who fronts a band based in Tuscon, The Wyatts (”Tone, Truth, Twang”). I like the sound - Telecasters and a bit of a country feel welded to […]

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This came up on the MP3 player on the way to work. A few weeks aback I wrote about the southern belle from northern Virginia and how I used to swipe my parents’ car to go see her; this song played incessantly, and it’s one of those songs you come to associate with a certain […]

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When George Harrison died I was wandering around the web, reading various obits, and wound up on the BBC site, which was referencing bands that had been influenced by the Beatles’ sound. One of them was this band called Dodgy - the “sun-drenched guitars of Dodgy,” quoth the BBC.
Hmmm, I thought. Sun-drenched guitars. That sounds […]

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One more. This one rocks.
If Eddie Money had fronted Cheap Trick, it would have sounded like Artful Dodger, a late ’70s band from Fairfax, Va. This is a live version of the Who classic - terrible sound quality, strange video. But listen to the the performance. In the zone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pLjHMw2o1U

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The Thrills, 2003. I love the idea of this band - a bunch of Irish kids so enamored with the southern California sound of the Beach Boys, the Byrds and Neil Young that they spend a summer in San Diego, soak up the vibes and write about it. Plus, the lead singer looks sort of […]

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Posies circa 1993 (starts around 3:57), a cover of a Chris Bell song - Chris Bell being one of the founders of Big Star, one of the most influential bands of the past 30 years which was, unfortunately, ignored in its day - early 1970s - and Bell died in obscurity in a 1978 car […]

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Seven years into the 21st century and nearing age 40, I’m still very much a 20th century boy. As my kids will one day tell you.
Marc Bolan and T Rex, 1973. I love the glam thing - Bowie and the Sweet, T Rex and a handful of others that come immediately to mind. My band does […]

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One of my favorite bands, evah. Saw them on a rain-soaked afternoon at Hershey a few years back; wished I was into the group sooner, as I know they played The Village (of all places) about a decade ago, and that would have been a fantastic place to see Zander/Neilsen do their thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w7gad9a5Pg

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Found this one online yesterday, and if floored me.
The Dead at F&M?
Actually, I think I knew they’d played there. But I can’t fathom how this could be. I mean, this was the early ’70s, so I assume the camping/vending scene wasn’t what it had turned into by the time I got into the band in […]

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You know, YouTube is amazing. And so is Eric Carmen’s hair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7a9D92Je2s

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As if I know anything about this. Actually, I do.

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