Don’t worry, we’ll be playin’ those mind games, as usual, soon enough.
Oct 092010
Mr. Moderator
Oct 072010
First, what must have been the commercially released video to accompany this star-studded cover of The Buzzcocks’ most-successful song. A list of the contributing artists appears toward the end.
Then, if the notion of the UK as a small, close-knit music community unlike anything we could imagine in the United States still hasn’t hit you, there’s the following, more mind-blowing homemade video: Continue reading »
Oct 062010
Townspeople,
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!
Continue reading »
Oct 062010
How dare you call Billy Joel “evil!”
Oct 052010
Surely you recall some of the groundbreaking analyses we’ve performed since 2008 in predicting baseball’s postseason play according to the power of each team’s walk-up music. With the 2010 Division Series playoff matches about to begin, it’s time we get our first look at this year’s most-rocking contestants. Let’s start with the National League, and then we’ll catch up with the American League tomorrow. We’ll keep this initial overview concise to allow us room to drill down as less-musical teams are eliminated.
Let’s start with my hometown team, the Rocktober-tested tough Philadelphia Phillies. Continue reading »
Oct 052010
See if you can hang on through the hyperventilating woman interviewing The Buzzcocks in Toronto, in 1979 (following a set up by some more recent Toronto VJ). As your reward, a little past the 5:00-minute mark, there’s a pretty clean performance of “What Do I Get?,” a rarity among the typically sloppy Buzzcocks live cuts from ye olden days that I usually come across.
What I really want to get at, though, is the inanity of media members who expect musicians to aspire to STARDOM and the whole “star treatment” routine. How intoxicating that can be for young musicians, but what a pain! I can think of at least one Townsperson who I bet has been through this type of interview. Anyone else to any degree? It’s one thing for a musician to humbly or secretly desire some form of success – or even to gun for it without prompting, but it’s quite another to be expected to act like you want to be the next Mick Jagger, like you should be oozing stardom and secretly hitting on the interviewer while he or she is sticking a mic in your face. This woman seems to be trying too hard to lead The Buzzcocks into acting like they’re something other than they are, missing the opportunity to talk to what seem to be a fun, interesting bunch of guys. I guess anyone on the other side of an interview has been guilty of feeding into an expected routine with an interview subject, but this style of interview strikes me as especially cheesy. I’ve got no beef with rock musicians who actually possess and/or attain star power, but the expectation for musicians to fall into that pattern can be…icky. It’s awkward to watch The Buzzcocks squirm through these expectations, no?
Oct 042010
John Lennon would have been 70 this week. As you may have heard, the entire solo Lennon catalog is being reissued, remastered, reboxed, rebought. There will be countless reassessments of the man’s solo career, with references to long outdated terms like primal scream therapy and lost weekend. These reassessments will likely include seemingly outrageous defenses for generally considered turds, like Some Time in New York City and Rock ‘n Roll. There are bonus discs involved in these reissues, including demos from the Plastic Ono Band debut and a stripped-down Double Fantasy (“But not stripped down enough, not stripped of Yoko’s songs!” I hear some of you cackling). Best yet, if my reading retention was on, you can buy these CDs, including the bonus discs, individually rather than being tied to shelling out for the 11-CD box set, as is too often the case in these massive reissues.
As Lennon’s solo career is reconsidered, some of us in the Halls of Rock may find ourselves rolling our eyes and snorting over the original Lennon Pass. However, it’s hard to argue that Lennon is not a deservedly a beloved and missed figure. Who can blame any of us for having interest in re-examining a solo catalog that was mostly disappointing in its time? To spark this week’s inevitable reassessment of John Lennon’s solo career, let’s hear your gut answers to the following Lennon-oriented Dugout Chatter questions…after the jump! Continue reading »
