[Do English people write and express themselves better than Americans, Australians, Canadians or anyone, really, because they invented the language, forcing us to continue playing “catch up” after all the centuries? Below is Englander Mike Hughes on PJ Harvey. – EPB] “God damn Europeans, take me back to beautiful England” – LOL at PJ being …
Here’s Brazilian taxi driver Jean Walker with his stunning version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” delivered from behind the wheel of his cab: . Also in the Michael Jackson Suite at EastPortlandBlog.com: Tribute to Michael Jackson From Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy Brazilian Cab Driver Impersonates Michael Jackson Spectacularly On the Occasion of Michael Jackson’s Death, …
OK, here’s another Kate Bush tune for my friends who are fans (her outfit is right up there with some of Barbarella‘s best…Halloween costume idea anyone?) On an aside, do you notice a thematic, though not stylistic, similarity to “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes? A woman looking for additional racy costume ideas …
It’s a gig Jim, but not as we know it…. Visiting Brits, more used to gigs in student halls or the back rooms of London pubs, we happened to pitch up in Salt Lake City at the same time as the opening night of new music venue The House (http://thehouse.org). It’s situated discreetly in what …
Dallas’ Time Machine Band is performing their cover of I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and the singer is modestly hot and seriously mellifluous, but that’s not where the fun is…
East Portland Blog’s favorite song by The Band. Keyboardist Richard Manuel is on vocals:
East Portland Blog readers may have already been exposed to Complete, but if not, watch this 2008 video of the band playing their own composition “Hoogie Boogie Land”: This seems pretty shitty at first, right? Guy can’t sing, death metal “no established beat” drumming but in a wimpy hard rock format. Maybe these guys don’t …
Richie’s Reprisal: Thoughts from the Pallid Pilgrim OUT-SPECTORING SPECTOR by Rich Horton In the days before multi-tracking, producers of rock-influenced pop records were stuck with the thorny problem of how to translate rock’s bombast over the tinny car radio speakers by which most American teenagers heard the music. Phil Spector’s solution to the problem was …
As I wrote to a friend after finishing my first spin on this: “What the world needs now is more warped master statements!” And to think I almost didn’t spin it once after reading the lyrics in the booklet. Never read before spinning. Even I forget that rule sometimes. Simply reading, you see, you might …
His name is Boo Boo Davis. He’s got the Boo Boo Blues. Damn lucky for him! He coulda been stuck with the furshlugginer Ethel Lipschitz Blues! Man, what a damnation. But he’s got the Boo Boo Blues. We call that order in the universe. And we’re furshlugginer thankful for it into the bargain. Not that …
“All Vocals: Russell Mael” reads a credit on the booklet back of the twenty-first album by Sparks; and I don’t think anybody, not even the folks applauding this record, appreciates what a breathtaking accomplishment that is. Russell (the cute one) used this one-man choir approach on the last two albums and 2006’s “Hello Young Lovers” …
On the Thursday evening after it happened I sat at Charlie’s on Broadway meeting some new people. I said I couldn’t remember the last time four famous people died in one day. Which where the other two, everyone asked. Why, Sky Saxon and Johnny Hart, I said. I found only one man who knew of …
Just in case you didn’t see this today: JOHN LYDON’S TOP OF THE POPS ROOTS REGGAE PICKS: http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/john_lydons_top_of_the_pops_roots_reggae_picks/ It’s been interesting to read in the Keith Richards book how very deep into reggae he was/is too. Of course, I knew about Peter Tosh opening for The Stones, living in Keith’s house, and Keith’s pad in …
Fish (no relation to Phish), late of Marillion (though he wishes everyone would quit talking about that), always held his various broken hearts so close that they burned from body heat. So when life threw him a genuine own goal—he courts the female singer of a female progressive band, they engage, they set the date, …
This electric, yet unplugged, version of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” is trending in Seattle this morning:
Nick Millward and his fabulous Riffbrokers have been providing sweet, crunchy audio candy to the NW for over 10 years now, from power pop to Americana. Nick explores the power and magic of the hillbilly spiritual on a great new song, available for free download. http://riffbrokers.bandcamp.com/track/leaning-on-the-everlasting-arms – Steve Stav
East Portland Blog asked me to write about “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis, but my heart really wouldn’t be in it today knowing that this clip of Louis Prima and Keely Smith exists. Prima was a combination Zelig/Lord of Misrule of 20th century music, with a career stretching from Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans to the LA …
Another reminder that St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. St. Paddy’s day in Chicago is a huge deal. Offices may as well close for two days due to low productivity on the day itself and the hangover time wastage which inevitably follows the next day. I never thought I’d miss those wild March …
Corin Tucker, once the siren of Sleater-Kinney, has a new band, the Corin Tucker Band, a new album, “1000 Years,” and, most importantly, a new hat. (Click here for Ken Tucker’s review): Meanwhile, ex-bandmate Carrie Brownstein has a new TV show with SNL’s Fred Armisen.
One of the legacies of World War II, with its enlistment of young men from across the United States for military service in Europe and the Pacific, was the integration of Southern rural culture – both black and white – into mainstream American life. The South, which had been largely isolated from the rest of …
Critic’s Roundtable, Part 4 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Behold! http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop Look carefully and you’ll see a ballot from yours truly. Almost nobody else voted for my picks, but I expected nothing less. A few observations: those rascally Posies finished at 190, beating out, …
When you answer “Beatles” to the question, “Beatles or Stones?” it shows that you don’t understand the question being asked, and if you don’t get it in 2011, you never will. – East Portland Blog Critic’s Roundtable, Part 3 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 …
Critic’s Roundtable, Part 2 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Tom is, as usual, generous, judicious and fair in his evaluation, and that’s why he always would have made a better rock critic than some of us of stronger, more strident opinions. But there are …
“Weren’t Young Fresh Fellows more important in the grand scheme of things than Nirvana? And wasn’t Popllama more significant than SubPop? – East Portland Blog Critic’s Roundtable, Part 1 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Through the 1980s a couple of different strains ran through …
This is for everyone who first heard of Jackie Wilson via Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said” but never got to hear the real Jackie Wilson. Here he is on The Ed Sullivan Show, January 21, 1962.
Mike Nesmith’s highest charting song, post-Monkees, was a surprisingly tender country ballad from 1970:
Thanks to Randy Rendfeld for this: The NPR interview with Colin Meloy of Portland band, the Decemberists, and their new album, The King is Dead (available as of 1/18/2011) may be heard here at the NPR website. And here’s Calamity Song, a nifty homage to Reckoning-era REM on the new album: