Mr. Moderator

Mr. Moderator

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

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: I Actually Know Something

 Posted by
Feb 182012
 

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

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In your host, Mr. Moderator, celebrates the working men and women of Rock Town Hall, hits on a few thoughts related to his upcoming trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and threatens to share the story of a fight he broke up between his sons over a Styx song. You know how it goes.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-67.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 67]

[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. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]

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Last Man Standing: Going Postal!

 Posted by
Feb 172012
 

I just heard a brief report on the news that the US Postal Service is considering raising its regular letter rate to 50 cents and discontinuing Saturday deliveries, among other cost-cutting moves, to stem an estimated annual loss of about $18 billion per year by 2015. In honor of the rapidly diminishing old-time practice of sending and receiving physical letters through the mail, I declare a Last Man Standing on songs centered around the practice of sending and receiving letters, including the practice of mail delivery. A mere reference to a letter is not enough; the postal service and its deliverables must be central to the song.

I’ll kick it off with one of my favorite childhood rockers, “The Letter”!

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All-Star Jam: This and That

 Posted by
Feb 162012
 

A few odds and sods that have been rattling around in my brain that I thought I’d dump on you… Feel free to return the favor!

Friend of the Hall Ben Vaughn (original late-’70s demo version of the song performed above here!), featuring my close personal friend and longtime musical collaborator Townsman Sethro on drums, is featured tonight at 10:00 pm on Philadelphia’s PBS station WHYY (and possibly PBS stations elsewhere). The performance was from a fun show in a South Jersey park late summer or early in the fall of 2011. Perhaps you’ll see me and my family sitting in the audience, off to the right side (from the audience’s perspective) of the stage. You may also see a guy who looks like me with shorter hair. That would be my brother.

Marc Maron interviewed Nick Lowe on his WTF podcast. I’m a real late-comer to this show, and despite having some problems with Maron’s “cool-guy” penchant for dropping F-bombs, his too-familiar-for-my-comfort self-absorption, and in this interview with a musician, obvious gaping holes in his musical knowledge, the interview really pays off if the music nerd in you can get by Maron’s Larry King–like lack of preparation. Lowe shares a lot about his early days.

A week or two ago I caught a clip of Christina Aguilera hamming it up at Etta James‘ funeral. That’s one low-hanging cross! There’s got to be an amazing Ham-Jam out there featuring Aguilera that blows away her role in the star-studded quartet version of that old LaBelle song some time ago.

This morning on my local Oldies radio station the DJ and news person made a Flavor Fav reference in their crossover. It made me feel 100 years old.

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Semifinals, Expansion Conference: Rock’s Greatest Backing Band Tournament Enters a Funk-Off as The Family Stone Meet The JB’s

 Posted by
Feb 142012
 

The Family Stone vs The JB's

As we progress through the Semifinals round of our tournament to determine—once and for all—rock’s greatest backing band ever, the Expansion Conference comes down to a battle between The Family Stone and The JB’s. The winner of this match will face Legacy Conference champs The Crickets.

Through the long, painstaking course of this tournament adequate arguments have been made on behalf of all the semifinalists. That doesn’t mean you’re not encouraged to continue arguing for your selection in this round, but you are welcome to cast your vote now. Voting in this match will run through 11:59 pm on Friday, February February 17, 2012.

Semifinals, Expansion Conference: The Family Stone vs The JB's.

  • The JB's (66%, 21 Votes)
  • The Family Stone (34%, 11 Votes)

Total Voters: 32

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Love Songs of Questionable Intent

 Posted by
Feb 142012
 

One of the details I believe I remember from the highly entertaining Led Zeppelin biography, Hammer of the Gods, is a story about drummer John Bonham‘s rationale that his constant cheating on his wife while he was on the road indicated how much he loved and missed her. I bet he was a fan of Stephen Stills‘ anthem of rationalized infidelity, “Love the One You’re With.”

What love songs of questionable intent would you like to celebrate this Valentine’s Day?

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Practice Makes Perfect: The Rolling Stones Rehearse for 1978 Television Appearance

 Posted by
Feb 132012
 

One of my long-unfulfilled rock performance dreams is to have a gig in which my band sets up and “performs” in rehearsal mode: that is, facing each other, playing for each other, having the right to stop songs in midstream, adjust part of an arrangement, and criticize each other. We would completely block out the crowd and just do our thing, the way our thing is meant to be done.

Every once in a while I stumble across a video of an artist rehearsing for a gig or studio recording. I LOVE THIS STUFF! As a music lover, I’m as interested in experiencing what goes on behind closed doors as I am listening to or making music myself, also behind closed doors. Don’t get me wrong, the thrill of playing out or seeing a band out in the wild can be tremendous, but there are less opportunities for catching knowing glances, intimate gestures, and tossed-off asides and fills.

Enjoy this goofy, spirited rehearsal by The Rolling Stones while it lasts on YouTube. I’m afraid Steve Luthaker owns the rights to this clip.

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