Mr. Moderator

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

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: No Words

Jun 252011

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

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In a vacationing Mr. Moderator shuts the eff up and let’s the music play. In fact, to celebrate a night without the Mod’s whining, we’ve programmed nothing but instrumental music. So kick back, do whatever it is you like to do while letting your mind run free, and enjoy.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-34.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 34]

[Note: 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.]

Musical Moments I Cannot Imagine Ever Happening on National Television Again

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 252011

Phoebe Snow and Linda Rondstadt cover The Roches‘ “The Married Men” on Saturday Night Live. I like how they take it upon themselves to introduce to the country a then-practically unknown band. This would have been around the time of the sisters’ breakthrough s/t album. I like how Snow and Rondstadt are appearing together just because they feel like it—as if they’d just happened to be doing lines in Lorne Michaels‘ office during the Not Ready for Prime Time Players’ final run through. Paul Simon and George Harrison made a similar non-promotional appearance. Could a national television show, not to mention artists’ managers, allow such an informal, generous appearance again? Thinking about this makes me feel twice my new age.

Whether you’re 24 or 48 or 96, what musical moment can you not imagine ever happening on national televlsion again?

(Another) Paul’s Surprisingly Tasteless and Discomforting Look

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 242011

First this, now this.

Despite his frequent lapses in musical self-awareness and taste, Paul McCartney‘s usually managed to maintain a respectable sense of personal style that plays up his everlasting cuteness while not succumbing to the eternally creepy cuteness of a Peter Noone, perhaps. (It’s just the way God made him!) McCartney managed to look good with his old shag hairdo, but a conflicted Paul awaits. I’m not a fan of hair dye for men and plastic surgery, but the man could do a lot worse.

The following clip, from 1974, is just such an example.

All we can see is Paul’s head, but a number of things are going wrong here. He seems stuck between Looks, and personally I find it discomforting.

All-Star Jam: French Open Edition

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 242011

Not being a tennis fan it took me a few minutes to figure out who this collection of fit rockers was. Despite the requisite pointy guitars, the ’80s fashions, and the undying love of their Parisian audience they’re actually not bad. Can you imagine another collection of athletes delivering such decent rock ‘n roll?

E. Pluribus Gergely: In Case You Need an Open Space to Give a Townsperson Hell for a Misguided Opinion, This Bud’s for You!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 232011

School’s out for summer, and that can only mean E. Pluribus Gergely is on the loose to give his fellow Townspeople hell for all manner of misguided opinions on rock ‘n roll, movies, and lord knows what else. Sometimes the man just feels the need to tell it like it is. Why make him try to shove his opinions into a barely relevant post? Why not offer him this open thread from which to conduct his educational efforts? I’ll be across the Atlantic Ocean, sadly far away from the man’s wisdom, but I encourage the rest of you to keep an open mind—and heart—to what he’s got to say. Thanks.

If You Can’t Say Anything Nice About…Christian Vander of Magma

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 232011

We here in the Halls of Rock Town are sometimes taken to task for being overly negative, snarky, hyper-critical, and all too often, just downright rude. As part of our collective efforts to bring a bit of sunshine and light to the world wide web, we occasionally make an extra effort effort to find something good to say about, you know, stuff that is clearly godawful.

It is in that spirit that we embark on yet another effort to bring some positivity to our proceedings. Please spend some quality time with the video above, then — if you can — please find something nice to say about it. You’ll feel a whole lot better, I promise you.

I look forward to your comments. Just remember, if you can’t say anything nice about this video… please don’t say anything at all.

Last Man Standing: Sympathy for “Sympathy for the Devil”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 222011

Courtesy of Townsman geo.

Despite certain folks’ reservations regarding the status of Beggars Banquet in the Stones’ canon, none would dispute the archetypal nature of its lead-off track, “Sympathy for the Devil.” After coming across a number of songs with a knowing wink back to the Stone’s original, I’ve been thinking of putting together a mix of nuggets that mine this particular seam of classic rock gold: the descending chord sequence, the mutated Bo-Diddley/Rhumba backbeat, the Jack Daniels fueled “oo-ooos”, or anything else that constitutes an unambiguous reference to the original. I’m certain that in the collective mind of the RTH cognoscenti, we could locate dozens, certainly enough to fill an 80 minute CD. Let’s start with “Way Down Now,” by World Party.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/02-Way-Down-Now.mp3|titles=World Party, “Way Down Now”]

Who will be the Last Man Standing?

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