What’s your personal Rock ‘n Roll Hell, be it an actual moment in your musical life or a vision thereof?
Jun 052009
Jun 042009
Here’s a safe place to take your best shot, courtesy of sammymaudlin‘s favorite former Dodger. Fire away!
Jun 042009
The past month of May will go down as one of Rock Town Hall’s most fierce Comment of the Month battles. After days of deliberation among dozens of choice comments, such as this one, which was called to The Main Stage; this “Chess”-worthy snippy one; and this snazzy one, which makes use of high-brow references in the service of slamming an RTH pariah, the judges finally determined to award all who commented on this Battle Royale thread, in which Townspeople were asked to describe rock’s cross-promotional prime-time tv efforts they would like to have seen. The results of this query were better than I could have imagined. You can’t imagine the amount of sniffs we’ve gotten from Hollywood producers looking to buy the rights to your excellent flights of fancy. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to cut you in on any deals we might land. Thanks and congratulations to each and every one of our winners!
Jun 022009
I’m so mad at my eMusic. I don’t know, eMusic just, uh, calls me up the other day. eMusic wants to charge me the same amount of money for about 1/2 of the downloads beginning in July! Can you believe that? I said, “Hey! I work for a living!” So I give eMusic the money. Yesterday, they call me up and say the only extra shit we’re going to offer is like Outkast and Alicia Keys. I said, “Hey! What is this?!” So I worked out a deal with them. I’m having eMusic, uh, work on my transmission. And, uh, move my barbells up to the attic. So that’s pretty good, huh? [laughs]
Jun 012009
I didn’t have any idea what kind of music Goblin Cock played until I started putting this post together. Their name put me off so much that I wasn’t even willing to give them a try.
And, for the record, I would be even more turned away by a band named Lappin’ Snatch.
Blatant use of naughty-bit terms makes me wary. It took me years to give The Butthole Surfers a fair shake.
The use of umlauts is always a red flag. (Yeah, I know Hüsker Dü is cool but name another…) Do we have Blue Öyster Cult to thank for umlauts? Am I using the term “umlauts” correctly? Does the term itself have ümlaüts? Seems like it should.
Anything Germanic poses a threat. Anything biblical and/or related to hell and/or the devil and/or death.
Use of the work “metal.”
Anything intentionally misspelled. “Kreator” as a case in point is a double threat name being both biblical and misspelled. Do we have Led Zeppelin to thank for this practice? (I don’t count The Beatles as it is a play on words.)
Anything with a “z” in it gives me pause. If there hadn’t been The Zombies and that very band, which I love, came out today, I’d be wary. I’m just speaking from the heart here.
Most of the above are related to my distaste for metal. So here are some others.
I’m cautious of any band named “_____ and the _______s” unless they are from the late ’50s or early ’60s.
I am wary of any artist that simply uses his/her name if they haven’t played in a band that I’ve heard of before. Same goes for duos that go by “______ & ______.”
Use of the word “revue” or any band name that uses a number has an instant hole from which to climb.
These aren’t rules here. I’m just sayin’, any of the above make me wince and cautious.
What says you?
Jun 012009
In an recent thread Townsman sourbob proposed the following topic for discussion on The Main Stage:
Good bands you might miss out on if you judge them by which bands/circuit they tour with.
Let’s do it! I’m sure you’ve all judged an artist or a band by its touring circuit at one time or another. Which rose above their circuit that fellow Townspeople shouldn’t miss out on if they have been holding simiilar biases?
May 302009
Rhythm guitar. It’s a lost art. Go to any guitar store and listen to the people trying out guitars. Nobody is playing chords. I learned to play guitar from The Beatles’ songbooks and only started playing lead much later. But these durned kids nowadays don’t seem to understand the art of accompaniment, though admittedly guitar-hero disease goes back to the late ’60s.
Get It!
In the punk era, lead guitar was kind of frowned on. And then in power pop/new wave music there was more of an appreciation of songcraft and more of a focus on rhythm guitar as a basic building block of great pop music.
Self-titled
Marshall Crenshaw actually became a pretty accomplished guitar player, but on his first album the songs are more typically built on simple but effective rhythm guitar riffs. “Brand New Lover,” the song that ends the album is a great example. It’s open with a nice, funky riff; works through some very clever modulations; and generally gives off a genially horny urgency appropriate to its straightforward lyrical theme. Marshall needs a brand new lover. Rightnow rightnow RIGHTNOW.
Marshall Crenshaw, “Brand New Lover”
At the time lots of people wanted to cover Crenshaw’s songs. Not long after his debut album came out, Texas rhythm & blooz chantooz Lou Ann Barton recorded “Brand New Lover” on her own debut album, Old Enough.
Yes, I believe she is.
The album was recorded in Muscle Shoals and produced by Jerry Wexler (and Glenn Frey, but we’re going to let that go). Most importantly it was recorded with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. A number of guitar players are credited on the album, including Frey and Wayne Perkins, famous for having played the lead part on Bob Marley’s “Concrete Jungle” and for supposedly almost joining the Stones. But almost certainly it’s rhythm guitar genius Jimmy Johnson we hear anchoring this version of the song.
Lou Ann Barton, “Brand New Lover”
The opening riff here is just awesomely funky. This is really Rhythm Guitar 101, even though it’s not something you can really teach. I don’t want to say Crenshaw sounds wooden by comparison, because there’s certainly nothing wrong with his version, and obviously he came up with the riff itself. But Johnson adds a swing to it that Crenshaw just doesn’t have access to. Now his part is doubled, with the each track panned left and right, but I don’t think that’s really where the rhythm resides. It’s in Jimmy Johnson’s fingertips. The rest of the rhythm section really brings the song home, and Barton’s sassy vocal doesn’t hurt. In fact it’s interesting how a woman singing “I need a brand new lover” just has a different tone than a man singing it.
Anyway I think her recording is an object lesson in what a good rhythm guitar player can bring to a song. What are some of your favorite rhythm guitar parts? If an earnest young guitar player came to you, willing to forgo guitar-hero status and wanting to learn how to serve the song, what are the tracks you’d point him toward?
Once more — with feeling!
