Almost exactly 50 years ago, the Beatles came to Hamburg's tawdry Reeperbahn district and, dressed mostly in black leather, transformed themselves into the best rock band in the world. Later this month, a group of American indie rockers will play the band's old club, the Indra, to commemorate the raw, fast, very early Beatles.Named for an X-rated movie theater where the Liverpudlians stayed when … [Read more...]
Record Store Day 2010
TODAY is National Record Store Day, a time to celebrate and look back at an institution dying the same slow death as delis, jazz and newspapers. But with some great moments left and some great moments ahead.HERE is a previous post on Record Store Day that gets into my own personal history with record shops, and includes an article about record store clerks in LA, especially at Amoeba Music.I'm … [Read more...]
Cool New California Novel
A fine new book with a perfect-pitch Southern California setting, has just dropped: Model Home, which starts out in an '80s gated community, is the first novel by Eric Puchner, whose Music Through the Floor provoked Charles Baxter to call it "the most auspicious debut of a short story collection that I have encountered in years." Model Home looks at a family that's driven by golden dreams, but … [Read more...]
Favorite Guitarists, on Reflection
Since he is widely considered the finest rock musician on any instrument, it's hard to be surprised that Jimi Hendrix won my guitarists poll quite handily. (Is that sound disgruntled Keith Moon fans smashing things in the background?) But there were some surprises along the way.To review, this poll asked people for their favorites -- a house- burning-down grab, not the most important historically … [Read more...]
Our Favorite Guitarists
SOME of you -- especially if you are a musician, music writer, or serious listener -- have already taken part in my informal poll of favorite guitarists. This was conceived not exactly as a historically rigorous greatest-of-all-time but the work you'd grab either if your house was burning down, or to take to the proverbial desert island. (I'm aware that these are two slightly different categories, … [Read more...]
John Lennon vs. High Culture
Twenty nine years ago, on a cold December morning, I woke up to see my mom, a bit addled, standing in my bedroom doorway. "I've got some bad news," she said. "John Lennon was shot.""Well, is he okay?" I asked.I was in 6th grade, and I'd spent much of the previous few years sitting in the basement while my head spun along with the turntable to the Beatles music -- especially "Revolver" and an album … [Read more...]
"Passion is No Ordinary Word"
I'M kind of giddy to note that this week marks the birthday of British "Angry Young Man" Graham Parker. Parker broke about the same time as Elvis Costello, bringing with him righteous anger, a voice that resembled Van Morrison and perhaps American R&B, and a musical traditionalism grounded in The Band and other US models. Though he never hit as hard as Elvis or even Joe Jackson -- those glasses … [Read more...]
The Clean vs. New Zealand Pop
A HIPSTER friend, back in the 80s, turned me on to the new zealand sound -- the clean, the chills, the verlaines -- bands that made what was coming out of the US a the time sound pedestrian indeed. this stuff was pastoral, punk, lo-fi, hooky, and weirdly random all at once. i hadnt heard guitars tuned that way since the third velvet underground record. the clean is back with a new record, "mister … [Read more...]
Italy vs. Rock ‘n’ Roll
Over the last decade or so, france has launched air, phoenix and a whole host of chanteuses including the heavenly keren ann. sweden has given up komeda, the concretes and peter, bjorn and john. ever germany has the scorpions. (for better or worse.)but italy -- for centuries the most aesthetically minded nation in all of christendom -- has never sent a decent rock band into international orbit.i … [Read more...]
John Lennon and "It’s Only Love"
SIXTY-NINE years ago today, one of the greatest artists of the rock era, and my first cultural hero, was born in a hospital on liverpool's oxford street. especially with the madness over the beatles mono and stereo reissues still fresh, john lennon does not need my defense or explication here. i'll just say that i lost most of my elementary school years blasting my parents' beatles records, and … [Read more...]