Forget about chicks and cars, I suspect this is why we pick up an instrument and dream of making it big!
Mar 312009
Mar 302009
LEUctR-pw5k]
I can only think of a couple of good reunion (or post-reunion) albums. Cheap Trick’s Rockford is pretty good but I’m not even sure that counts as they never took more than 4 years between releases. Did they ever officially call it quits?
I digress.
The Buzzcocks Flat-Pack Philosophy is pretty good and clearly a post-reunion album.
I thought about this other day when Simply Saucer’s reunion album, Half Human, Half Live, (and actual only official album release) was recommended. I picked it up on eMusic and it is good, but not great.
Am I missing something obvious? Are there any great reunion albums?
Mar 292009
Trust me, it has nothing to do with the music. I immediately had this thought while watching it with the sound turned down. I barely turned the sound up about 30 seconds into it, and that part of the clip made no impression on me one way or another. I don’t recall ever seeing a performance – lip-synched or not – that so uniformly bugged me in this way. Can you identify what bugged me so?
Mar 292009
Saturday morning, while watching the 1944 film The Lodger (a remake of a 1927 Hitchcock film), starring my man George Sanders, I had a few Whaddayouknow?!?! moments, that I’ll take the liberty of sharing.
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Mar 272009
Someone put a sign up here at work which says they are selling four tickets for the Billy Joel/Elton John tour. The tickets are $250 a pop.
I’ve become numb to high ticket prices over the years because I don’t go to “big” shows anymore. It’s like hearing numbers about the federal deficit: on a certain level it registers that it’s a lot of money but it doesn’t affect my daily life. I have been obsessed with music since about 7th grade but $1,000 for four seats in a baseball stadium struck me as pretty outrageous, and I can’t think of anyone that I would pay that kind of money to see. I suspect that there is an inversely proportional relationship between the level of rock snobbery and the amount one is willing to pay for a show.
So the question is this: What is the most you would pay to see a show and who would you pay to see?
A couple of qualifications:
- It has to be a possibility (No “Clash in ‘79” or “Who at the Marquee” answers).
- We just talking about the price that you pay for admittance. You can’t factor in transportation, beer, concert tees, etc.
Me? I might go as high as $100 for a Replacements reunion tour depending on the venue, or a Tom Waits show if he had Marc Ribot with him. But I might not.
Mar 272009
Medallions not included.
There was a ’60s party band called The Swingin’ Medallions, a great name says this medallion lover, but a quick search turned up no photos of them wearing medallions. Other “Goatee Rock” bands of the second half of the ’60s surely wore medallions, but rock ‘n roll and medallions were never as closely related as I would argue they should have been. Urge/Overkill wore medallions, but similarly they never caught on as part of rock fashion in the early ’90s.
Rock fans have long been ready to adopt the Look of a favorite rock star, and rock ‘n roll artists have a long history of dressing up for both the stage and photo/video shoots. However, for all the influence rockers have had on fans in the areas of hairstyles, clothing, and makeup, I believe there is a dearth of rockers who can make a claim for inspiring any fashion trends around jewelry.
Think of rock ‘n roll and jewelry, and who’s the first rock artist that comes to mind? I asked a couple of colleagues in the Halls of Rock before drafting this piece, and one suggested this guy.
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Mar 272009
What’s your feeling on between-song stage banter? I usually dread it, but every once in a while I see an artist who’s good at it. Richard Thompson‘s banter was highly entertaining when I saw him with a band in the late-80s. RTH contributor Rodney Anonymous from the Dead Milkmen used to talk like crazy, but he was like a punk rock George Carlin and his rants added to the energy of the band’s shows. I’ve seen Pere Ubu more than any other non-local band, and although David Thomas is usually awkward and miserable, he’s highly entertaining.
On the other hand, there’s Elvis Costello, who’s not bad but overstays his welcome. Most other performers mumble stuff half-heartedly, making me wish more bands would play nonstop segues like The Ramones. Then there’s Bruce. His long, corny raps about his Dad at the breakfast table, giving him hell for his long hair and rock ‘n roll are cherished by his fans, but when I saw him live in 1980, they almost single-handedly threatened to ruin what little I enjoyed about the show. The Boss is also big on the rah-rah stuff, the “Hello Cleveland!” incantations. It all reminds me of some of the reasons I don’t attend any kind of church.
As I said, I don’t dislike all between-song banter and I’d love to recount a specific story that made the concert experience better than it already was. However, I’m not one of those guys who can recite quotes from favorite movies that I’ve seen a dozen times, so I’m definitely not one of those guys who can recount a particularly good piece of between-song banter. But I’ve heard more than a few of you spit back Monty Python routines and the like. I’m sure you’ve got a particularly good and/or bad stage-banter experience to recount.
I look forward to your thoughts.
