Poor

This man would have turned 100 a few weeks ago. When he died at 27, there were only 2 known pictures of him. To this day, those two pictures are all we have. I'm 23 and I think there are over 200 pictures of me on facebook alone.

Anyway, you haven't lived till you've listened to Robert Johnson's music. Find some. Sit alone in room with all the lights off. Cry.

Soapbox

I remember an old bass-playing friend of mine saying (and I'm paraphrasing) "If it wasn't worth boo then, then why's it worth a house now?" He was referring to vintage instruments in "mint" conditiion and the high prices they demand now. His belief was (and I have to agree with him) that if an instrument is in "mint" condition, it probably wasn't played alot. And why wasn't it played alot? It probably wasn't that good to begin with. So why do instruments that weren't worth your sweat when they were first issued, fetch such high prices now?

I have since adapted Wayne's theory to alot of music I hear. I was listening to Pandora the other day and they played me some American garage band (who shall, in order not offend any readers, remain anonymous in this article) from the mid 60's that apparently "recorded two singles and had little success outside of their hometown of Des Moines, Iowa" And after listening to this group, I understood why. There was nothing that unique about their sound, nothing that seperated them from the scores of other Stones-Yardbirds imitators founded in parents' garages across America. However, in recent years, this little known band has gained acclaim from record collectors as purveyors of punk and garage rock. My question is, why?? Why has this group with no discenible qualities garnered enough acclaim to require me to click the "dislike" button on Pandora??

The only explanation I can come up with is that its considered "vintage". It almost seems like everyone is searching for the next "lost to time" artist or band. Alot of these groups however do not strike me as "lost to time" but rather "lost to any quality"
Of course I definitely believe there were plenty of vastly underated bands and artists from the "vintage" era (Billy Nicholls, Moby Grape, Big Star and Roy Buchanan to name a very few). But these forgotten artists do not justify giving credit to those who don't deserve it.

But what do I know.

Dreaming....

I remember the first time I ever played a mic’d harmonica through an amp. It was through a cheap karaoke microphone from Circuit City and a Behringer amp that came with my first electric guitar. I’d had a Paul Butterfield fetish for years and knew that I wouldn’t be close to replicating that sound until I had a mic and an amp. Any description of how it felt to play amplified harp for the first time would risk some pretty gross hyperboles, so suffice it to say it felt something like what I imagine this feels like:

Playing any sort of amplified instrument (especially one as loud and distorted as blues harp) is never fun while living in an apartment. Invariably somebody is going to tell you turn down or stop altogether. And punching them in the groin only works as a response so many times before you have to concede to these demands. That’s why I got one of these:

It’s a wonderful little amp that’s only 20 watts and has some really nice features, without making it fussy (you know how you know you’re NOT watching a blues band? When the bass player has 13 pedals). But when you’re playing with a band, 20 watts goes about as far as the front of the stage.

I intend to remedy this problem with these:

Fender '59 Bassman Re-issue

Fender '65 Twin Reverb

I have some pretty big plans for these kids, but I’m gonna need to wait a little bit until I save up enough (insert corny term for money here i.e. “green”, “dough”, “dead presidents”) for them.

Of course there’s always this:

(I’m not kidding)

The Line I Shoot....Will Never Miss

It would've been this MAN's 94th birthday on Monday.  

Thats not sweat on his face, its heart.

Ra! Ra! Ra! Ra! Sis-boom-bah!

This blog was gonna be about Moby Grape. But to avoid the risk of appearing obsessed, its gonna be about this instead.

I read somewhere that the music you listen to as a teenager will stay with you your entire life. That is to say, what was on your walkman/itunes account/friends' mix tapes at 16 is gonna still be there when you're 60. The reasons why are unimportant here, although I have some hunches...

What I wanna talk about is what music defined YOUR high school experience. To get the proverbial ball rolling, I'll be listing the albums I listened to most frequently, but feel free to list songs, artists, videos whatever just so long as it conjures up memories of being a teen.

1. Bluesbreakers-John Mayall with Eric Clapton

2. the Paul Butterfield Blues Band

3.Get Behind Me Satan-the White Stripes

4.BBC Sessions-Cream

5. Broken Boy Soldiers-the Raconteurs

6.Those Were the Days-Cream

7.Led Zeppelin

8. More Adventurous-Rilo Kiley

9.Sessions For Robert J-Eric Clapton

10.Parklife-Blur

Listen my lover...get under the covers

Seacrest OUT

So I was talking to my love about the Taliban and we realised that this year will mark the tenth year anniversary of 9/11. This led to a discussion of what sort of event, or series of events, will take place to commemorate this occasion.

We concluded the following:

CONCERT

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

HOSTED BY:
Ryan Seacrest and Bryan Dunkleman

WITH PERFORMANCES BY:


The Black Eyed Peas

Justin Beiber

Toby Keith

Carrie Underwood

Aretha Franklin

U2

Stevie Wonder

Xtina

Christin Aguilera

Sting

Mary J. Blige (with special guest Steven Tyler)

Sheryl Crow

Bruce Springsteen

Elvis Costello

Tom Petty

Neil Young

Yoko and a very angry Paul

Meg White and Ringo drum circle

Sonny and Cher

the Jackson 4 and Williie Nelson



SPEECHES GIVEN BY:
Ellen Degeneres (being serious)

Rosie O'Donnel(being funny)

George Clooney (being seriously funny)

Morgan Freeman

Salma Hayek

Oprah

Matthew McConaughey

a drunk Will Smith dressed as the queen of England

(neccesarily in this order)



















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