Oct 292011
 

Don’t you just hate it when rockers feel the need to inject their political views instrumental versions of songs from West Side Story? Stick around ’til the end—and don’t miss the go-go girls practicing their dance steps during the hosts’ set up for this performance, before any music is playing!

What’s the most unexpected political comment you’ve heard from a rock ‘n roll musician?

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Jul 112011
 

As any musician can tell you, it’s tough to build an audience of any size. Can you imagine how hard it must be to churn out million-selling albums and release singles that become radio staples for the next 40 years?

Now, imagine building that audience, selling all those albums, and garnering all that airplay with 8-minute songs involving complex time signatures and multiple “movements” while being sung by an elfin flower child with a high-pitched voice, spouting off fastastic tales of chess and outer space. (And this elfin prince of rock ‘n roll may be the best-looking guy in the bunch, despite the shocking results of a popular rock blog’s fan voting for Sexiest Man in Prog-Rock 40 years into the future.) Imagine taking these ingredients and producing actual songs with parts that could be sung, whistled, and hummed from top to bottom by an average 12-year-old kid. Continue reading »

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Mar 232011
 

Will Your Mystery Date Be a Dream or a Dud?

All righty…looks like there’s no need for the Big Reveal (but you’ll get one anyhow). BigSteve and tonyola correctly played their “mockcarr option,” while hrrundivbakshi enthusiastically and sincerely stepped into a heaping pile of Mystery Date identification! Our Mystery Date was indeed Patto, featuring Mike Patto. The Mystery Songs were “Hold Your Fire” and “Hold Me Back.” Now that you know who this band is, I offer you “The Man,” another song that may be too long for some of you, but those of you lacking patience may miss out on some choice insights into the song’s subject matter.

Patto, “The Man”

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Patto_01_The-Man.mp3|titles=Patto, “The Man”]

The band released 3 albums, from 1970 to 1973, before disbanding, leaving an unreleased (until 1995) album in the can. Now, get your pad and pen ready, because I’m about to blow your Rock Town Hall mind and waste a lot of your time!

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Jan 112011
 

I went to see an old friend’s band last week and ended up staying through the end of the night to see not only my friend’s band but the stylishly suited opener and the final band on the bill, a young Brooklyn outfit called Apollo Run. No offense to the first two bands, who delivered the kind of fine, traditionally rocking sets I’ve come to expect of them, but I want to focus on Apollo Run.

As they started their set with some mellow songs along the lines of the first YouTube clip here, loaded with rug harmonies, I was both impressed by the band members’ ability to harmonize on nonsense syllables and a bit bugged by the fact that some of the songs reminded me of that Fleet Foxes appearance on Saturday Night Live last fall. As with Fleet Foxes, I was impressed by how deftly and specifically Apollo Run bugged me that way I was bugged by rug pioneers like Crosby, Stills & Nash. I thought there was a point when I would live long enough to never have to hear a certain type of music again, but I was wrong. Rug harmonies are back.

Then the band began to loosen up a bit. Their opening song’s promise of some Police-like dynamics resurfaced along with more rocking dramatics along the lines of Queen and poppier late-period prog bands, like Asia or something (super-cute, engaging singer/keyboardist/guitarist/trumpeter John McGrew would have killed leading a progressive arena band from the late-’70s). More modern influences, surely, came to the fore, influences I could not identify if my life depended on it. They were so anthemic and “1980s,” at times, that I had visions of young, buzz-cutted Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer high-fiving over their soaring harmonies. It was terrifying, but it made me regret some of what I might have missed out on during my too-cool-for-school youth. Continue reading »

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Oct 262010
 

Three copies of this DVD have been provided by our pals over at Universal Music to give away. The task is simple: Name (link to if possible) an album COVER that includes a naked bum on it. Male, female…this contest swings both ways. We’ve installed a PlugIn called “Comment Timeout” and  have set the comments to close at a time only known to us here in The Back Office.  As this contest is pretty much automated the Guest Judge will be…

Continue reading »

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Oct 132010
 

In the above clip, one of Prog-Rock’s Sexiest Men, Chris Squire, and Yes bandmates Steve Howe and Alan White, humorously discuss the halcyon days of rock cape-wear. It’s fitting that they should have the first word on the matter because, along with their bandmate Rick Wakeman, they took The Cape about as far as it has gone in rock ‘n roll history to date. The Cape is our latest subject in an ongoing series assessing of Rock’s Unfulfilled Fashion Ideas. Maybe you can help us better understand the cape’s appeal and possible resurgence in rock ‘n roll style.

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