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This Is Your Rock Town Hall

Apr 172012

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!

Name That Name

Posted by al

Apr 162012

Spoiler Alert: Grumpy Old Man Ahead

Here’s the track listing from the CD accompanying the March 2012 issue of The Word:

Field Music – Start The Day Right
Team Me – Patrick Wolf & Daniel Johns
Phantom Limb – The Pines
Hundreds – Happy Virus
Chuck Prophet – I Felt Like Jesus
Folks – Avalanche
Speech Debelle – X Marks The Spot
Lovecraft – The Beast
Dodgy – What Became Of You
Am & Shawn Lee – Somebody Like You
Band Of Skulls – Wanderluster
Hooray For Earth – Last Minute
Mike Doughty – Na Na Nothing
Alex Highton – I Left The City
O’Hooley & Tidow – The Last Polar Bear

I was 5 tracks into the disc before I knew whether the band name or the song title came first.

What’s happened to band names?!?! I tell you, it’s another facet of EPG’s contention that there’s been no good music since 1983.

It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when band names were recognizably band names AND they were cool. C’mon, will anybody seriously argue that Panic! At The Disco is a cool name?

Types of band names changed over time, they followed trends, but they were recognizable.

I’d like to enlist the collective wit & wisdom of to catalog the eras of band names, create the time line. Can we fill in the time from 1955 to 1983 (or further if you insist there has still been music since then)? You define the time frame, you describe the band name category, you give the examples.

I’ll start it off.

1967-68: Psychedelic names, like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Ultimate Spinach, Electric Prunes…

Sound and Vision

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Apr 152012

Black Sun

I recently spent on a few days up in Seattle enjoying the uncharacteristic sun, and the characteristic strong coffee, cold beer, and heavily blue and green landscapes that that city offers. And while I strongly associate Seattle with music, during my 5 days there, I noticed other ways that music is closely entwined with the visual art culture.

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: An Unexpected Attack of Early ’90s Nostalgia

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 142012

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

Who knows where the time goes? In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator experiences an unexpected attack of early ’90s nostalgia. Join him, won’t you, on this journey through a palette-cleansing decade that may not have set the stage for much but wasn’t bad while it lasted.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-75.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 75]

[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.]

Robin Gibb in Coma: Are the Bee Gees Soon to Be Rock’s Most Cursed Band?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 142012

Reports are circulating that one of the 2 surviving Bee Gees, Robin Gibb—he of the most vibrato-laden voice in that trio—doesn’t have long to live. If, as expected, 3 of the 4 Gibb brothers will be dead at a young age, this puts the Bee Gees in contention with Lynyrd Skynyrd for rock’s equivalent of “Curse of the California Angels” status. Considering that the Gibb-related deaths are all in one family, this may put them “ahead” of Skynyrd. However, Andy Gibb was not a member of the singing group, so his inclusion in the Rock Band Tragedy count might not qualify, as would be expected if the Van Zandt brother from .38 Special had died young. Tell that to Momma Gibb, right? All horrible joking aside, Robin Gibb did some remarkable work in all phases of the band’s history, perhaps no better than kicking off the following song.

Few Townspeople beside shawnkilroy are likely to support me on the following, but I also feel this awkward disco track also showcased Robin’s unique talents.

In Concert: Vance Worley at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 142012

Mystery Date Revealed: Butter 08

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Apr 142012

As a bridge between 2 weeks’ threads, may I offer a little butter? And not in the Marlon Brando/Maria Schneider way, although I’m sure the band was referencing that classic film.

This week’s Mystery Date was performed by Butter 08, a New York band who released one self-titled album in 1996 on the Beastie Boy’s Grand Royal label. Members included Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto, Russell Simins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Rick Lee of Skeleton Key, and Mike Mills, graphic designer of album covers and later, a director of film (Thumbsucker and Beginners). But the mystery guest on the Mystery Date track, “It’s the Rage,” was Sean Lennon performing the keyboard solo. He was dating Yuka Honda at the time, and when Cibo Matto toured, played the bass.

I couldn’t find any Butter 08 live performances, but here is their one and only music video (sans Sean):

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