Nov 19 2008
Scroll through the Christie's Fine Arts auction calendar and you'll find "Jewels: The Geneva Sale," "Important European Furniture, Ceramics, and Carpets," "Finest and Rarest Wines Featuring Domaine De La Romanee-Conti" and then... "Punk/Rock."
Punk rock at Christie's? As in "Sex Pistols poster. Sold! To the gentleman for $2,000"?
Now, this is priceless - and if it doesn't make people who grew up the '70s feel kinda old, what does?
The Nov. 24 auction is the first auction of punk-era memorabilia, much of it posters, collectible records and clothing, starting with the Velvet Underground and David Bowie and moving up to the Smiths and New Order.
Among the items:
-- Extremely rare example of The Sex Pistols first press release, dating from March-April, 1976., estimate: $5,000 and $6,000.
-- Considered perhaps the most significant Punk flyer, the Screen on the Green Presents a Midnight Special August 29, 1976 featuring Sex Pistols + Clash + Buzzcocks, estimate: $3,000-$4,000.
-- Limited edition print of Black Flag poster TURRRNNN OFFF THHE RAAAADIO. I DONN'T WWANT TO LISSTEN TO MUUSIC., signed by Raymond Pettibon, brother of Greg Ginn, $2,000-$3,000
-- A 1976 Columbia Records test pressing labeled Advance Promotional, signed on the cover by The Ramones, Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee in black marker. Accompanied by the Sire press release for their first album and a publicity photo, $5,000-$7,000.
-- Rare concert poster for The Ramones appearance at the Roundhouse, July 4, 1976, which notably attracted other bands in the audience such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned, $2,000-$3,000.
Can't wait to see the reports of who showed up to buy this stuff and how much they paid for it.
It's just a shame that Carsickness and The Five didn't get break nationally because those posters we used to see on poles in Pittsburgh the late '70s/early '80s were some of the most edgy and alarming.
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Nov 18 2008
Next time there's a national act at the Brillobox, don't miss it. You never know what's going to happpen. Last month, the reclusive Jeff Mangum showed up with the Elephant 6 Surprise Tour.
Last week, sparks flew between former Television guitarist Richard Lloyd and local opening band The Gems, bringing the headlining set to a grinding halt.
Lloyd, who was born on the North Side and grew up in Homestead before moving to New York at age 7 and eventually becoming part of the famed CBGB scene, says he was excited to play his hometown on the last night of his tour.
What resulted was a fiasco.
According to Lloyd, while he and his band were adjusting equipment - including a back line supplied by the Gems - a woman from the crowd came up on stage to look out the window to see if the pizza shop across the street was open.
"I told her, ‘Miss, you have to get off the stage.' Civilians and pedestrians are not allowed on the stage. They might injure themselves or endanger the equipment. This string bean vocalist from the other band started arguing with me, ‘Hey, [bleep] you, she's just looking out the window.' "
According to Cory Allen of the Gems, "He screamed at her to get off the stage. If he had been polite about it, nothing would have happened. I never even raised my voice. I told him to please relax."
Back to Lloyd: "I was only five feet from [Allen]. I put my first finger up and said, ‘Don't talk to me like that.' His [friend], who was behind him, she rushes out. I haven't touched him. She grabs my left bicep and pushes me hard in my chest. I say, ‘Take your hands off me.' I swing my arm inwards and made it so she had to release her arm from my grip. And as I released her arm, I gave her a slight shove to create space between us."
"He pushed her to the side," Allen says.
How hard?
"I can't get into that. At a time where there were tempers are flaring," Allen says, "it's hard to say."
According to Jim Boyle, a Television fan who lives acros the street from the Bloomfield club, "This led to a shouting match between him and the couple, and culminated with a little physical scuffle between Lloyd and the woman. Nobody hit anyone or anything, but it was definitely intense and created a scene."
Back to Lloyd: "She screams out, ‘You hit a woman!' Then she rushes at me with both palms and hit me in the chest. I yelled, ‘Security!' "
At that point, Lloyd says, one of the bouncers comes up and says to Lloyd, "You're out!" "I say, ‘I'm the headliner. I have to play in like 5 minutes.' So I turned and went back on the stage and started tuning my guitar."
After five songs - which were really good, by most accounts, including Allen's - Lloyd needed to tune because he had new strings. From the back, he hears chants of "Rich-ard Lloyd! Rich-ard Lloyd! Woman beater!" which start from Allen and Gems' fans and pick up throughout the room.
"It was a protest," Allen says. "He was using my band's equipment and the two girls were two of our biggest supporters. I wasn't about to watch him play with our equipment when he treated our supporters like that."
The chant, Lloyd says, "was spreading like a virus. I very quietly put down my guitar and got off the stage and raised my voice and asked, ‘Please get the owner here, the promoter here, security here and please call the police.' I was afraid of several things. There were intoxicated people in the club and I was afraid one would have a little too much and try to be a hero. I was fearing for my own safety. I was hearing this slander from the audience."
At that point, Lloyd stepped off the stage to speak with the bouncer.
"He came out in the crowd and I thought he was going to try to fight," Allen says.
Allen and the band reacted by getting up on stage and removing the drums and the bass rig, which they had supplied.
Show over.
Lloyd says, "Many people got their money back and my deal was a straight percentage of the door, so obviously I lost money."
"He had this temper that was scary from the get-go," Allen says. "He was being a [jerk] the whole night. Really egotistical."
By Lloyd's account, everything was fine before the woman came up on stage. Now, he's concerned about what rumors will spread about the incident.
Will he come back to Pittsburgh to play again?
"Of course," he says.
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Nov 17 2008
Yeah, I know there's a lot of Bruce in this blog, but, hey, it's not my fault the guy insists on making news.
If you were watching Sunday Night Football last night, you probably heard the preview of his new single "Working on a Dream," the title track of a new album due Jan. 27, just before his halftime performance at the Super Bowl.
The song sounded, well, just OK. Or slightly less than OK, with Bruce singing a rather pedestrian chorus in his upper range. They didn't even play the whole song, so it's a little hard to tell.
Despite all the criticism about the production of "Magic" - personally, I loved the songs and the hated the sound - Springsteen has turned once again to producer Brendan O'Brien, probably busy creating a big wall of mushy sound in his Atlanta studio as we speak.
Springsteen released a statement, saying, "Towards the end of recording ‘Magic,' excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O'Brien heard the new songs, he said, ‘Let's keep going.' Over the course of the next year, that's just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year's tour. I hope Working on a Dream has [captured] the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."
Let's hope he's not just throwing this out there to have new product for the Super Bowl...
Note that the dark and gritty Halloween song "A Night With the Jersey Devil" turns up as a bonus track.
The track list
1 Outlaw Pete
2 My Lucky Day
3 Working on a Dream
4 Queen of the Supermarket
5 What Love Can Do
6 This Life
7 Good Eye
8 Tomorrow Never Knows
9 Life Itself
10 Kingdom of Days
11 Surprise, Surprise
12 The Last Carnival
13 The Wrestler *
14 A Night With the Jersey Devil *
Nov 14 2008
Rolling Stone has weighed in from on high with another list to argue about -- and this one's a doozy.
The Greatest Singers of All Time, as chosen by a panel of artists, critics and industry insiders.
Here is the list:
1 | Aretha Franklin
2 | Ray Charles
3 | Elvis Presley
4 | Sam Cooke
5 | John Lennon
6 | Marvin Gaye
7 | Bob Dylan
8 | Otis Redding
9 | Stevie Wonder
10 | James Brown
11 | Paul McCartney
12 | Little Richard
13 | Roy Orbison
14 | Al Green
15 | Robert Plant
16 | Mick Jagger
17 | Tina Turner
18 | Freddie Mercury
19 | Bob Marley
20 | Smokey Robinson
21 | Johnny Cash
22 | Etta James
23 | David Bowie
24 | Van Morrison
25 | Michael Jackson
26 | Jackie Wilson
27 | Hank Williams
28 | Janis Joplin
29 | Nina Simone
30 | Prince
31 | Howlin' Wolf
32 | Bono
33 | Steve Winwood
34 | Whitney Houston
35 | Dusty Springfield
36 | Bruce Springsteen
37 | Neil Young
38 | Elton John
39 | Jeff Buckley
40 | Curtis Mayfield
41 | Chuck Berry
42 | Joni Mitchell
43 | George Jones
44 | Bobby "Blue" Bland
45 | Kurt Cobain
46 | Patsy Cline
47 | Jim Morrison
48 | Buddy Holly
49 | Donny Hathaway
50 | Bonnie Raitt
51 | Gladys Knight
52 | Brian Wilson
53 | Muddy Waters
54 | Luther Vandross
55 | Paul Rodgers
56 | Mavis Staples
57 | Eric Burdon
58 | Christina Aguilera
59 | Rod Stewart
60 | Björk
61 | Roger Daltrey
62 | Lou Reed
63 | Dion
64 | Axl Rose
65 | David Ruffin
66 | Thom Yorke
67 | Jerry Lee Lewis
68 | Wilson Pickett
69 | Ronnie Spector
70 | Gregg Allman
71 | Toots HIbbert
72 | John Fogerty
73 | Dolly Parton
74 | James Taylor
75 | Iggy Pop
76 | Steve Perry
77 | Merle Haggard
78 | Sly Stone
79 | Mariah Carey
80 | Frankie Valli
81 | John Lee Hooker
82 | Tom Waits
83 | Patti Smith
84 | Darlene Love
85 | Sam Moore
86 | Art Garfunkel
87 | Don Henley
88 | Willie Nelson
89 | Solomon Burke
90 | The Everly Brothers
91 | Levon Helm
92 | Morrissey
93 | Annie Lennox
94 | Karen Carpenter
95 | Patti LaBelle
96 | B.B. King
97 | Joe Cocker
98 | Stevie Nicks
99 | Steven Tyler
100 | Mary J. Blige
Now, a few thoughts:
- Bob Dylan No. 7? Dylan? Really? With that voice? Why so low?
- Robert Plant ahead of Mick Jagger? No way. In fact, I'd have him over Lennon.
- Iggy the only punk? What about Joe Strummer? Not a pretty voice but a pretty amazing one. I would have Rotten on there, too, but that's me. Love those R sounds.
- Paul Rodgers? Never understood that. Maybe they meant Paul Westerberg?
- Toots Hibbert?
- Why is Whitney Houston all the way up there?
- Why is Axl Rose ahead of Steven Tyler?
- Art Garfunkel? Paul Simon sang most of those leads.
- Presumably, this is not 'of all time' and 'of the rock era' - which would explain the exclusion of Sinatra. I still have to read the fine print.
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Nov 13 2008
In the review of the Hold Steady show, there's much complaining about the chosen venue - the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead, where alcohol is only permitted outside (it was raining) and the sound bounces all over the place. But with no viable 1,000-capacity over-21 club, we were lucky to even get the show. Props to Brian Drusky for bringing tours like this to town.
-- I had a seat in row J right in the middle (behind two people who were 8 feet tall) and it was hard to even make out what the Hold Steady's Craig Finn was singing, a shame considering how great the lyrics are. When I moved back under the balcony, closer to the soundboard, it was much better, probably because the sound was getting trapped in a smaller space.
-- Kenny Steinberg, prominent lawyer and avid concert-goer, writes, "Sound was terrible through most of the balcony, but at the back center it was merely awful, slightly better than terrible. Vocals were completely washed out, and it was a strain to hear guitar solos. And I wouldn't have known that there was an organ or a pedal steel for the Drive-By Truckers unless I actually saw it. I thought it was my old ears but my seat mates agreed. If one knows all of the words to all of the songs it isn't as much of an issue - our brains fill in the parts we don't hear, kind of like going to a Dylan show and figuring out in the middle of the song just what song it is!"
-- There was one funny moment in an otherwise serious Truckers' set when Mike Cooley started doing the midtempo country tune "Bob," and then stopped, saying, "Let's do another song. Ya'll are sitting down and that's just bummin' me out."
-- The Hold Steady's Craig Finn said at the end of the show something along the line of "We've never played with anyone who shares the love and joy of rock 'n' roll like the Drive-By Truckers." True. What a great pairing.
- The Hold Steady set list:
Constructive Summer
Hot Soft Light
Chips Ahoy
Yeah Sapphire
Sequestered in Memphis
Cattle and Creeping Things
Navy Sheets
Massive Nights
Party Pit
Joke About Jamaica
Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
One of the Cutters
Cheyenne Surprise
Stuck Between Stations
The Swish
Lord, I'm Discouraged
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
Shattered Cross
How a Resurrection Really Feels
Encore (with various Drive-By Truckers)
Ride On (AC/DC)
Chill Out Tent
Look Out Cleveland (The Band)
Killer Parties
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Nov 12 2008
The bad news: A Hollywood biopic of Jerry Garcia is in the works. And you know what those can be like.
The good news: Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, who have us the excellent indie hits "Election" and "Little Miss Sunshine," have signed on to produce, along with Eric Eisner ("Hamlet 2").
Interestingly, rather than capture the iconic musician at his Dead peak, according to the Hollywood Reporter, "The untitled project will focus primarily on Garcia's early life in the Bay Area before he joined the band that would become the Grateful Dead - a period that includes a stint in the military, a life-changing car accident and his first creative encounters with members of the Northern California music scene including future Dead bassist Phil Lesh."
The basis is Robert Greenfield's book "Dark Star," an oral history of Garcia. Topper Lilien ("Where the Money Is") will write the screenplay. No word on who will play Jerry, but people are already tossing out names like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Black and Paul Giamatti.
As long as we keep Seth Rogen out of the discussion...
Nov 11 2008
The great Ed Masley posted on that Kinks-Genesis blog, "First, America elects a president we can be proud of. Now, the Kinks are getting back together. What next, trees that do grow money?"
Sorry, the money on trees is for the bankers.
But we do get an Elvis Costello talk show, which can't be anything but an entertaining and very musical affair from one of the smartest rockers on the planet.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." premieres on the Sundance Channel Dec. 3 with a mix of conversation and music by Costello and his guests. Costello will begin each episode with "an original, never before seen (or heard) interpretation of a song by the featured guest, or a song connected to them." Thirteen one-hour episodes will air Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. (One potential problem here would be not getting Sundance, but at least it will come out on DVD.)
The lineup of guests seems a bit mainstream, but we can trust to Elvis to do great things with it.
'"I didn't really want to talk to anybody that I would have to feign
enthusiasm for," he recently told NY1. "Some of them are personal friends but it also wouldn't
be any good if they were exclusively just my friends. It would be too
inside."
Here's the schedule:
Dec. 3: Elton John.
Dec. 10: Lou Reed and Julian Schnabel
Dec. 17: Bill Clinton
Dec. 24: James Taylor
Dec. 31: Tony Bennett
Jan. 7: The Police
Jan. 14: Rufus Wainwright
Jan. 21: Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, Norah Jones, John Mellencamp
Jan. 28: Renée Fleming
Feb. 4: Herbie Hancock
Feb. 11: She & Him, Jenny Lewis, Jakob Dylan
Feb. 18: Diana Krall
Feb. 25: Smokey Robinson
If there's a second season, you have to figure on a visit by big Elvis fan Nick Jonas.
Nov 10 2008
OK, so on Friday night, I wrote more about the David Byrne concert than there was space in the paper (my bad), so a paragraph or two was trimmed from the Saturday review, which may have left people wondering, "What the hell was he talking about?"
Late in the review I said that, "Byrne was on his game throughout, which is a good thing because the band, well, could have kicked it harder."
What was missing from the published review was: "Where was the chest-thumping bass on ‘Once in a Lifetime'? Why wasn't the percussionist taking names on ‘Cross-Eyed and Painless'? Why didn't ‘Life During Wartime' feel as urgent as...life during wartime?"
What occurred to me later -- the review had to be in by 11 p.m. so there was no time to think -- was that the musicians sounded and even acted a bit like jazz players. And that's a good thing on some of the more supple and complex songs early in the set. But, for full impact, you really want rockers playing songs like "Life During Wartime."
I looked up bassist Paul Frazier and found that his background seems to be more in the jazz and R&B realm. Same goes for drummer, who lists stints with Aretha Franklin, Liza Minelli, Debarge, Crystal Gayle, Melissa Manchester and Burt Bacharach. Percussionist Mauro Refosco -- who wasn't catching fire like a player in, say, Santana, Paul Simon's band or Rusted Root -- is a member of the Lounge Lizards.
No one was expecting it sound like Talking Heads on the "Remain in Light" tour when they added guitarists Adrian Belew and Bernie Worrell, two percussionists and bassist Busta Cherry Jones. But these guys didn't rock hard enough.
A little more punch, a little more volume, and it was a Concert Of The Year contender.
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Nov 07 2008
We've had some pretty cool rock reunions over the past year: Led Zeppelin, Iggy and the Stooges, The Police, The Sex Pistols, Rage Against the Machine...
Who's next? (Not The Who, because 2/4's of them are already out there calling themselves that.)
How 'bout the Kinks and Genesis? There have been rumblings about both in the past week.
Ray Davies told BBC News that The Kinks - with all members still breathing - were working on an album of new material.
"We've started a little bit of this and that," he said. "But it is too early to judge the quality. It depends if there's good music. We want good new music. I'd like to do it as a more collaborative thing than we used to do."
Let's hope it comes to fruition, if only for the sake of Ed Masley.
The one I want to see even more is Genesis, who are throwing out another invitation to the elusive Peter Gabriel. Upon the release of a boxed set of vintage Genesis material, Tony Banks told Billboard, "I know Phil [Collins] would be quite happy with the idea of just playing the drums; it would be quite fun for him. Mike [Rutherford] and I are certainly happy to do it. I know Steve [Hackett] is keen as well. I think it'd be down to Peter (Gabriel) more than anyone else."
It almost happened in 2004 for the anniversary of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway." Then Gabriel backed out and the other three went on without him -- and sounded fantastic.
Come on, Peter, put aside your reservations and solo projects and just do it -- before you guys get too old.
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Nov 06 2008
Pittsburgh pop-punk band Punchline has recorded a punchy cover of the Louis Armstrong classic set to clips of President-Elect Barack Obama.
This is bonus stuff from Punchline, as the song does not appear on the band's new record, "Just Say Yes."
Also, John Mellencamp has released a statement about the election:
"This for me is something I never thought I would see in my life. I remember the assassination of Martin Luther King and the marches in Selma, Alabama, and seeing Rosa Parks, demonstrators getting sprayed by fire hoses and attacked by police dogs and all the other horrible things that happened at that time in our country. Then I played at the 2004 Democratic Convention, which was my first introduction to Barack Obama, and after his keynote address I looked at my wife Elaine and said, ‘Man, what a poet! He could be president of the United States!' And that's absolutely verbatim.
"But even I, who have written countless songs about race, could not believe that a man of color could be president of the United States. But today I am so proud of America. I am so happy for all Americans, that we have finally started to fulfill our obligation to the immortal words of our Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. We cannot expect this man to immediately change the last eight years of fear and deception, but I think we can rejoice in the fact that there is someone speaking not just for his own interests, now, but hopefully as a voice for us all."
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