Bring your finest silken jumpsuits right here! The All-Star Jam is the place to do your thing.
Jun 072013
Jun 072013
Daryl Hall is apparently getting his on restoration show on the DIY Channel, in which he will “restore a 1-bedroom house in Connecticut that had originally been built circa 1780 by a widowed sea captain.” I’ve subsisted with rabbit ears for about 3 years now but if any show has tempted me to get cable again, this is it. So many questions, including:
- Why?
- Will there be musical interludes?
- Why would the DIY channel approach Daryl Hall rather than someone known for their DIY can-do attitude like Henry Rollins or the guys in Fugazi, or Bon Iver, whom I assume built his own log cabin in the woods?
- Will Oates be relegated to just handing the screwdriver to Daryl or will he actually have a more hands-on role in creating the finished project?
If I had a hammer…
The reality TV show craze is fascinating to me. It’s been going on for 22 years now (if The Real World is considered to be the show that ushered in the era), and I am amazed at the resourcefulness of the various shows’ creators to come up with ideas for new series. Whoever came up with the idea for a show about people who fish by punching catfish in the mouth deserves some sort of lifetime achievement award.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “You don’t need to invent something new, you just need to put a clock radio in something that already exists.” So, this Daryl Hall thing has got me wondering:
- What other already existing reality TV show could benefit from having a Rock Star replace the ordinary schnooks currently cluttering up the screen?
- Who would you like to see restoring a house?
- Which wives would you want to see on the Real Housewives of Rock Stars?
- Who would you like to see in a Hell’s Kitchen style cook-off?
- Which Rock Star would you want to see engage in a little old fashioned Hillbilly Handfishing?
Jun 072013
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Jun 062013
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!
Jun 052013
Transcendental.
The following song by Kelly Hogan, “Strayed,” always seems to come up on my iPod at just the right moment while I’m running it on shuffle during a long car ride. It sounds especially good late at night, while I’m driving the family through Connecticut en route to Maine.
The boys are asleep. They don’t have the patience for this slow-burning, atmospheric song. My wife is usually half asleep, keep herself just conscious enough to confirm which way I’m supposed to go at a certain fork in the journey. The first few times she heard “Strayed” she stirred more than usual at 3:00 am and asked, “Who’s this?”
Jun 042013
I can’t stand Journey. I never liked them, not a thing about them. (Well, there was that brief moment in time when I had some interest in them.)
For a variety of reasons, I assume, we tend to go easy on African-American musicians. It’s understandable. Rock ‘n roll fans have been raised to praise the “authenticity” of the genre’s predecessors and colleagues from the extended soul world. Most, if not all, regulars in the Hall seem to be white. (I’m not asking for anyone to step forward and prove that assumption wrong, mind you.) Most of us did not grow up with the music of African-American artists as our initial source of music, so we lack the visceral reactions that come from growing up with a particular strain of music that is in the crosshairs of our culture. That’s cool. Hell, some of you don’t know a soul artist exists unless some white dude has gotten behind the production of the artist’s “comeback” album.
However, we’re adults. We’re mature. We’ve developed our hard-earned tastes. We know what we like and what we don’t like. We can spot a white rock turd from a mile away. Some may point to Journey or Styx or REO Speedwagon (or all 3) or Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show or Billy Joel, for instance, or a more contemporary artist of that “minitude.” I bet there’s an established African-American musician who makes your stomach turn—and I don’t mean a 1-hit wonder, like that nephew of Berry Gordy who wanted to be Michael Jackson.
Don’t hold back for fear of ignorance or cultural insensitivity: Who’s your African-American Journey?
After considering Donna Summer, I thought about it and landed squarely on the following:
Jun 012013
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
This mix is a big free-for-all of Japanese bands & bands with Japanese members in an all-star monster rally of epic proportions in an all-out rumble!
[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.]
