Oct 31 2008
Please allow me to quote from my review Thursday of the Little Steven's Underground "Halloween-A-Go-Go" record:
"The only misstep is paying dues to his Boss because there's nothing remotely dark or scary about ‘Restless Nights,' an intrusion at track two. If that's Springsteen's best Halloween entry, he's got work to do."
Well, as the Boss is a faithful reader of the PG (ahem), he got right on it, posting on his web site a free download of a Halloween song "A Night with the Jersey Devil."
OK, it's no "Bela Lugosi's Dead," but it's pretty awesome - a mean, stomping Muddy-style blues song with a nasty distorted vocal and the Boss wailing "16 witches casting 16 spells!" It's a little bit of 16 Horsepower too.
You can download the song here
But you have to see the video of Bruce showing his dark side here.
Here are the words (or at least most of them):
I was born thirteenth child
'Neath the thirteenth moon
Spit out on ???
Born anew
Daddy dragged me to the river
Tied me to a rock, throw me in where it's deep and wide
I go down
I don't die
On the river bottom
I crawl through
Come back, kill six brothers and sisters
Kill papa too
Sway down mama
Sway down low
They gonna know me
Where ever I go
Into my bed with the kerosene my mama creeped
Set my flesh to burn
While I started sleepin'
I burn, burn, burn
'Til my soul burn black
Black ???
I come back
I come back
Get down mama
Get down low
They gonna know me
Where ever I go
Sixteen witches cast sixteen spells
Make me a guitar out of skin and human skull
I'll sing you a song like the wind in the sandy loam
Bring you baby out your happy home
Ram's head
Forked tail
Clove hoof
Loves my trail
I sip on your body
Sip on your blood like wine
Our world theirs
This world mine
So kiss me baby
'Til it hurts
God lost in heaven
We're lost on earth
Sway down mama
Sway down low
They gonna know me
Where ever I go (yeah)
Where ever I go (yeah)
Where ever I go
Well I got a brand new lover
I love her, yes I do
Yeah, she's my one and only
My baby's blue
Now baby, baby, baby
Baby, baby, baby, blue
That's right
Whoah, ha!
Well now baby, baby, baby
Baby, baby, blue
Oct 30 2008
Update: Aww. Michael Jackson released a statement Thurday denying his participation in the reunion: "My brothers and sisters have my full love and support, and we've certainly shared many great experiences, but at this time I have no plans to record or tour with them."
Get out your Jackson 5 records, people -- there's a reunion coming.
At least according to Jermaine Jackson, who announced that the Jackson 5 are reuniting (with Michael!), that the group is in the studio and will tour in 2009 -- with Janet as the opening act.
Good lord.
Apparently, he let this slip to the Australian Associated Press during the launching of a television channel. Was he aware this was pretty big news?
"This has been a long time coming for the Jackson family to get back together," Jermaine said, according to the news agency. "It is just the timing, so what we've been doing is working on the music and all the logistics."
On caveat: Jermaine has said this before and it hasn't come to pass.
Oct 30 2008
- The Ted Leo and the Pharmacists show at Diesel on Wednesday has been cancelled due to "personal emergency," along with the rest of the band's tour. This may be unrelated but a fan posted on punknews.org, "When I saw him in Boston, he told the audience he was going to lose his voice during the performance. He ended up coughing and sputtering during a couple songs. Played the whole set like a trooper." Yes, I'm resorting to quoting kids on punknews.org.
- The Bob Weir (Saturday) and Gov't Mule (Sunday) shows at Carnegie Library of Homestead are sold out. Watching for Deadheads camping on the lawn outside.
- The next big show at the Homestead venue is the rowdy and glorious pairing of The Hold Steady and The Drive-By Truckers. Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn told the PG: "It's very exciting for us. We've been talking about doing something [with the Truckers] for a long time, if for no other reason than just to see each other's bands." Patterson Hood, lead Trucker, posts his favorite Hold Steady songs right here. His favorite is "Chillout Tent" (the one with Dave Pirner), which he calls "One of my favorite songs of the decade."
- I've been bugging Manny Theiner to schedule a date with Astronautalus (my favorite indie-hip hop artist) who skipped Pittsburgh on the last tour. Manny came through... but it's the same night as The Hold Steady show. Nooooooooo!
Oct 29 2008
All signs pointed to AC/DC having a bang-up week with "Black Ice," but did anyone expect the comeback record would have the second best debut week in 2008?
"Black Ice" topped the Billboard chart moving 784,000 copies (through Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and AC/DC's Web site exclusively), second only to Lil Wayne's 1,005,000 units earlier this year for "Tha Carter III."
It's also AC/DC's best-selling album since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. "For Those About To Rock We Salute You" topped the chart in 1982 but did not debut there.
They should have done exit polls at Wal-Mart to see who was buying this. Was it the class of '82 reliving its youth? Or was it a new generation of kids changing course for the "Highway to Hell"?
Now, the juicy possibility: Word is that there might be a date on hold at Heinz Field next summer for a billing of Metallica and AC/DC. This could not be confirmed.
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Oct 29 2008
Who ever could have guessed that a bluegrass fiddle player would one day stand in the way of a Led Zeppelin reunion?
OK, that's a little unfair to Allison Krauss because, after all, it's Robert Plant who is choosing to tour with her instead of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham.
Zeppelin's guitarist and rhythm section - sparked by the reunion in London last December - announced this week they are eager to get out and play and are auditioning singers to replace Plant for a tour. If he wore shoes, we could say those are big shoes to fill.
In any case, we're back in that that ugly business of having to weigh some quasi-classic rock band, following on the heels of the Doors reunion with Ian Astbury, The Who without its rhythm section and Queen with Paul Rodgers, to name a few.
"It's got to be right. There's no point in just finding another Robert," Page told AP. "You could get that out of a tribute band, but we don't want to be our own tribute band."
Rodgers, who joined Page in The Firm, is probably under consideration, but let's hope they don't go down that road again.
Has anyone seen Jack White lately? He's like Page and Plant in one body, but standing in for a legend might not be the best career move for the Raconteur (although he'd be hilariously great at it).
They could go the female route with someone like Joss Stone.
Or, they could get Ted Nugent and make it Ted Zeppelin. Or Bob Weir and make it Dead Zeppelin.
Or... maybe they should just not do it at all.
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Oct 28 2008
The music industry's mad love-in with Barack Obama continues this week with the Beastie Boys, Norah Jones, Ben Harper and Sheryl Crow now joined by Perry Farrell in Youngstown on Wednesday.
Just announced today is that Jimmy Buffett is making a rare foray into the political scene with a "Last Chance for Change" rally and concert for Obama in Tampa.
Have these musicians not noticed that both candidates right now are targeting Pennsylvania as the key battleground?
There should be one big Bruce Springsteen/Jay-Z/Beastie Boys/Jimmy Buffett/Vampire Weekend/Decemberist concert in Pittsburgh (or at the very least Beaver County) this weekend.
How did we miss out on all this?
In other Obama music news, the very safe-sounding "Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement" CD is available now for download at www.BarackObama.com and will be available in stores on Nov. 4.
The full track list:
Lionel Richie "Eternity"
Stevie Wonder "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours"
John Mayer "Waiting On The World To Change"
Dave Stewart "American Prayer"
Shontelle "Battle Cry
Los Lonely Boys "Make It Better"
John Legend "Pride, In The Name of Love"
Bebe Winans "I Have A Dream"
Suai "Am I All Alone?"
Jill Scott "One Is The Magic"
Ozomatli Love and Hope
Jackson Browne Looking East
Sheryl Crow Out Of Our Heads
Malik Yusef w/Kanye West and Adam Levine "Promised Land"
Yolanda Adams "Hold On"
Keb' Mo' "America The Beautiful"
Ken Stacey "America"
Buddy Miller "Wide River To Cross"
- In McCain music news, I heard them playing the "Rocky" song at a McCain rally on the radio.
Oct 27 2008
A couple weeks ago, I finally upgraded to the Comcast DVR thing, which is already filling up with episodes of "The Backyardigans" for my 4-year-old.
First, let me say, The Backyardigans totally rock.
As for the DVR, it will come in handy the next few days because it's punk-rock week on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (12:35 a.m. on CBS).
Here's the schedule:
- Tuesday, Oct. 28: X
- Wednesday, Oct. 29: New York Dolls
- Friday, Oct. 31: The Damned
X and The Dolls both turned up in Pittsburgh this year -- X at the Rex and The Dolls at the Arts Festival -- and more than lived up to their great legacies.
I couldn't tell you the last time we saw The Damned here, but safe to say it's been a while. The Damned were the first British punk band to release a single ("New Rose" in 1976) and the first to tour the States (1977).
Once at the forefront of the goth movement, The Damned are about to release their first album in seven years. What's it like? Would you believe melodic ‘60s pop in the vein of the Byrds? It's true.
The band has some dates on the East Coast in the next few months: Washington, D.C. (Dec. 29), New York (Dec. 31), New Jersey (Jan. 2), Philadelphia (Jan. 3).
Oct 24 2008
Two books landed on my desk over the past two days: "The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present" and "The Band Name Book."
Being a homer, naturally the first thing I did was flip through looking for any mentions of Pittsburgh artists. I checked the indexes for everything from Black Moth Super Rainbow to the Modey Lemon in the Pitchfork book, and all the way back to the likes of the Jaggerz and the Iron City Houserockers in "The Band Name Book."
The only Pittsburgh artist I could find in either book was Girl Talk, the laptop artist who wasn't even known to anyone outside of Pittsburgh until 2006.
The Pitchfork has Girl Talk listed under A History of Pop: Mashups for the song "Smash Your Head," saying "When Biggie Smalls's ‘Juicy' meets Elton John's ‘Tiny Dancer' in the middle of this ADD smashup clinic, Girl Talk elevates novelty into heart-wrenching art - and a centerpiece of his rabble-rousing live sets."
"The Band Name Book" writes "Though the name origin may seem straightforward, it's the stage name of [male] musician Gregg Gillis, who says, ‘It's actually a reference to some obscure line in a Jim Morrison poetry book. I don't even know which one anymore...it kind of sprung up amongst friends as a joke."
There's no accounting for Pitchfork's picks, but how could "The Band Name Book" miss one like Anti-Flag? Surely there was a story to tell about that.
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Oct 23 2008
The one-day sellout of the AC/DC show told us what we already know about Pittsburgh -- it loves the metal.
So why aren't we getting Metallica?
Seems like a natural that the band, having recently discovered its awesomeness, would play here on the "Death Magnetic" current tour. But it seems like they always skip Pittsburgh, even with dates in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. in January.
Of the top 20 tours listed on Pollstar, only five (AC/DC, Eagles, Dylan, Smashing Pumpkins, Motley Crue and Buckcherry) are scheduled to play here or have played here recently (see the list below).
Those are the big, mainstream shows. There are lots of smaller, indie bands people want to see here as well.
I'd be interested to know who you're waiting to see in Pittsburgh....
Here's the Pollstar list:
1. AC/DC
2. Metallica
3. Coldplay
4. Eagles
5. Bob Dylan
6. Neil Young
7. Depeche Mode
8. Oasis
9. Madonna
10. Tina Turner
11. The Killers
12. Smashing Pumpkins
13. The Who
14. Motley Crue
15. Queen + Paul Rodgers
16. Beastie Boys
17. Beck
18. Buckcherry
19. New Kids On The Block
20. Nine Inch Nails
Your turn to talk....
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Oct 22 2008
- Guns 'N Roses' "Chinese Democracy," the most tediously hyped album in the history of mankind, will hit Best Buy stores on Nov. 23. The single is on the radio now.
- R.E.M. is issuing a 25th anniversary deluxe edition of "Murmur" on Nov. 25 that will include the remastered album and a previously unreleased live recording from Toronto show soon after its 1983 release.
- The new Ryan Adams and the Cardinals' album, "Cardinology," due Oct. 28, is being streamed today and tomorrow here.
- Mudcrutch, the Florida band featuring Tom Petty, Tom Leadon, Randall Marsh, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, will release a live EP called "Extended Play Live" on Nov. 11.
- "All Aboard: A Tribute To Johnny Cash" is streaming here with covers by The Bouncing Souls, The Dresden Dolls (feat. Franz Nicolay of The Hold Steady), The Gaslight Anthem, The Sainte Catherines, Ben Nichols and more.
- Radiohead's "In Rainbows" has sold 3 million copies in its various forms, and sales from the band's Web site alone exceeded the total sales for the previous album, "Hail to the Thief."
- The Foo Fighters, B.B. King, John Mayer, Taylor Swift and Celine Dion are the first performers announced for "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!!" one-hour special, airing Wednesday, Dec. 3, on CBS (9 p.m. ET) from the NOKIA Theatre. Grammy nominees will be announced that night.
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