Mr. Moderator

When not blogging Mr. Moderator enjoys baseball, cooking, and falconry.

New Third-Hand ZZ Top Livestock Report Emerges!

Mar 132012

Recently we received the following offlist message in regard to our long-running investigation into the validity of ZZ Top‘s supposed Worldwide Texas Tour. Although not directly confirmed, this third-hand account, verified by our anonymous reporter, may lend some credence to claims of this suspect tour, which no one seems to have captured by a clear photograph or snippet of film.

Dear Mr. Mod,

While hanging out with our daughters at the playground today with my friend Charlie and I started talking about music, as we usually do, in this case large arena shows. I mentioned that I’d never been to rock show in a venue which seated more than 2500 or so people and he said that was the case for him as well, at least in the last thirty or so years. In his youth however, in Des Moines, he used to go to all the big rock shows at Veterans Auditorium, the largest venue in Des Moines. He listed several bands he saw and then, to my surprise, said, “I never saw ZZ Top, but I remember my friend Jay going and telling me that they brought a longhorn steer out on to the stage, and I was pissed because I thought that would have been cool to see.” I did a double take, and then asked him to repeat what he had said, and he confirmed that in the mid-to-late-1970s, a friend of his said he saw ZZ Top perform with a longhorn steer on stage.

Now I’m not sure where the ZZ Top cattle on stage debate was last left, but as a historian, I find this pretty compelling evidence, considering Charlie hasn’t spoken to the person who told him this story in over thirty years.

For what it’s worth,

[name withheld]

The Early 21st Century All-Musician Team

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 132012

Who among the 35-and-under crowd is worthy?

If you had to choose an Early 21st Century All-Musician team, composed only of musicians younger than 35 years of age and from bands of the last 12 years, who would fill out your 5-piece roster of drums, bass, two guitars, and keyboards? If you want to throw in a “sixth musician” on any instrument, even a laptop, go for it! But let’s leave singers out of this thread; they still get plenty of attention.

Even among the more contemporary bands I like I rarely feel like the musicians are highlighted. I was listening to some new album recently and thinking that the production kept me at an arm’s length from the music; everything was so focused on the the vocals and the extremely steady beat. If you had to “give the drummer some,” for instance, to which drummer younger than 35 would you turn? I just spent 3 minutes trying to begin to answer my own question, but any cool, modern-day “musician’s musician” who came to mind was already past 35 (eg, Jack White [37], Omar from The Mars Volta [37], Nels Cline [55!]).

Surely a large part of my question is a function of my age and lack of touch with modern music, but I’m also curious to know if people still cherish musicianship (of any favorite style of music) the way my friends and I did growing up. We were just as likely to make fun of Neil Peart, Steve Lukather, and their ilk, but we could have easily produced an alternative list of shit-hot musicians who should have been on the cover of those chops-oriented magazines. I can’t even name mainstream “chops” types younger than 35, can you? (Surely I must be forgetting some obvious contenders.)

Of course this thread begs the question, How many Townspeople are young enough and in touch enough to answer this question? Nevertheless, I think it’s a question worth investigating.

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: Standing the Test of Time (or Not)

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 102012

Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator addresses the one album in his collection that has aged worse than any other album he’s ever purchased. Hearing the 2 prime cuts from the album bums him out. Later, he makes things better and takes us all out with an entire album side from The Pretty Things‘ Parachute. Other stuff happens before and in-between. Enjoy.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-70.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 70]

[Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]

All-Star Jam

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 092012

It’s Ornette Coleman‘s birthday. Don’t let him celebrate alone!

Stumbling In: The Best Artist You Just Happened to Catch in Concert

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 092012

Here’s a topic I picked up from Facebook friend yesterday: Who’s the best artist (solo or band) you just happened to catch in concert? I’m talking about an artist you knew nothing about but simply stumbled into seeing as an opener, as a chance encounter on a night out with friends, or whatever?

My answer is The Embarrassment, a band I’d never heard of but saw as the first of 3 bands on a Public Image Ltd show in Chicago in 1981 or 1982. The Embarrassment were these nerdy guys with Oxford shirts, sweaters, and horn-rimmed glasses who put on a short set of incredibly high-energy, guitar-driven, fun (and funny) pop songs. They blew away the next band on the bill, The Effigies, and gave PiL (with John Lydon and Keith Levene playing half the set offstage, in the wings) a run for their money. In the early days of Nerd Rock, The Embarrassment delivered Nerd Rock at its finest!

A few years later I’d see Big Dipper for the first time and realize that the familiar-looking high-octane guitarist/singer from that band was Bill Goffrier, from The Embarrassment!

I Sure as Hell Don’t Call Him “Luke”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 092012

Seriously, is there something about being a “musician’s musician” that makes one seem more likely to come off like an asshole—not everyone in this clip, mind you—or is it the fact that they’re the ones most likely to be asked to appear in these videos that gives us the opportunity to see them that way? In other words, if we were filmed playing “No Fun” or “Gloria” or whatever “cool,” rudimentary song we knew how to play on guitar would we tend to come off looking just as self-absorbed?

Or am I simply an asshole for thinking this way at all?

Is there’s anything to what I’ve been thinking when I watch this clip, is there an instrument on which players with “chops” are least likely to look silly playing in such a video? Do piano players, for instance, come off any better when captured showing off their chops?

This Is Your Rock Town Hall

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 082012

Clip courtesy of a should-be Townsman.

This is your Rock Town Hall!

If you’ve already got Back Office privileges and can initiate threads, by all means use your privileges! If you’d like to acquire such privileges, let us know. If you’ve got a comment that needs to be made, what are you waiting for? If you’re just dropping in and find yourself feeling the need to scat, don’t hesitate to register and post your thoughts. The world of intelligent rock discussion benefits from your participation. If nothing else, your own Mr. Moderator gets a day off from himself. It’s a good thing for you as well as me!

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