This Is Your Rock Town Hall!

 Posted by
Jan 112011
 

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 »

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Rock and Roll Downer: Mick Taylor

 Posted by
Jan 102011
 

The other day, an eagerly anticipated vuh-deo showed up in the mail from my good buddies at Netflix: a Blu-Ray DVD of the Stones’ legendary Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones concert documentary.

In general, it didn’t disappoint:  the band was hot (gotta give out mad props to Bill Wyman and a surprisingly eager Charlie Watts), the song selection was choice (how could it not be in 1972?), and — well, it was just pretty dang great from one end to the other.

Except for one little problem: Mick Taylor.

Seriously, I’m a huge Mick Taylor fan. I even love his 1979 solo album! But, for crying out loud, every time the camera was turned on the dude, he brought the party down. Don’t believe me? Check out this clip, of Keef, Mick, and the boys blasting their way through “Happy.”

I swear, this bit of film gives me goosebumps — until MT takes his solo. Instant softie! Come ON, Mick Taylor! Aren’t you feeling the drive, the desperation, the swagger, the booze-n-heroin infused, grab-you-by-the-nutsatchel urgency of this song? Why you gotta go all Steve Howe on us now?! Save that standing in place, showing no emotion shit for some other tune, like “Midnight Mile” or something. No fooling, you don’t have to let the groove take over your body all the time — but, shit, man, would it hurt to give in to the music and at least tap your feet once in a while?

Sheesh. Who knew?

HVB

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Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: In Which Mr. Moderator Attempts to Get His Head Around Peter Gabriel-Era Genesis

 Posted by
Jan 082011
 

Mom!

In tonight’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In, Mr. Moderator will try to make sense of the two Peter Gabriel—era Genesis albums that he owns, Foxtrot and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, telling the tale of his first experience with “Supper’s Ready” and long nights spent flying on the wings of Pegasus. Won’t you join him on this journey? Sadly, our phone system is still down following last week’s chat with former Apple Electronics head and Magic Alex, so Mr. Moderator will not be able to take your calls. Your comments through this journey of discovery and understanding are welcome.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-10.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 10]

[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 each week’s podcast.]

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Please Explain: What Motivated Peter Gabriel?

 Posted by
Jan 072011
 


See if you can’t invest 9 minutes and 39 seconds in this clip of “classic”-era Genesis and explain to me what motivated Peter Gabriel? I mean, what is at the heart of the music he made with Genesis? What was he trying to communicate? He put a lot of energy into whatever it was he wanted to get across, but his message or general worldview fails to reach me. Did he do a better job of communicating whatever he wanted to communicate on his solo records? He’s sold millions of records worldwide as both a band leader and solo artist, so surely one of you has gotten what he’s going on about. Please explain. Thank you.

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Mystery Date Revealed: Static Taxi, Featuring Deposed Replacements’ Guitarist Bob Stinson!

 Posted by
Jan 062011
 

Will Your Mystery Date Be a Dream or a Dud?

Yep, Bob Stinson actually lent his bizarre, energetic, sloppy, interestingly failed hard rock chops to another band following The Replacements. Static Taxi, a local Minneapolis band led by Ray Reigsted, recorded 2 albums’ worth of material in the late 1980s-very early 1990, prior to Stinson’s death in 1995. I forgot Stinson lived that long! The title of the Mystery Date song was “FAFA.” Here’s a more tuneful one, “Max Factor,” also from the band’s second posthumous album, Closer 2 Normal. In some ways, I can better enjoy Stinson’s playing in this band. There’s less for him to step over; more for him to “make interesting.”

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Static-Taxi_01_Max-Factor.mp3|titles=Static Taxi, “Max Factor”]
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Mystery Date

 Posted by
Jan 062011
 

Let’s review the ground rules here. The Mystery Date song is not necessarily something I believe to be good. So feel free to rip it or praise it. Rather the song is something of interest due to the artist, influences, time period… Your job is to decipher as much as you can about the artist without research. Who do you think it is? Or, Who do you think it sounds like? When do you think it was recorded? Etc…

If you know who it is, don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyone who knows it can play the “mockcarr option.” (And I’ve got a hunch that some of you know this one.) This option is for those of you who just can’t hold your tongue and must let everyone know just how in-the-know you are by calling it. So if you know who it is and want everyone else to know that you know, email Mr. Moderator at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. If correct we will post how brilliant you are in the Comments section.

The real test of strength though is to guess as close as possible without knowing. Ready, steady, go!

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Mystery-Date-010711.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 010711]
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