Sep 29 2009
"So you're writing previews of Skyblast bands now?"
I got that sarcastic greeting from a friend last week after the story about Foreigner ran in Weekend magazine.
It was the first Skyblast preview we wrote this year, though the Zac Brown Band would have been a good contender. Foreigner seemed newsworthy since the band today is releasing its first new album in 15 years -- one that Foreigner fans certainly will like, and it's got that whole Walmart exclusive thing going for it too.
I even went to the game/show Saturday in the rain along with the paid attendance of over 36.500, although there were a good many open seats due to the weather. They game plodded along for three-plus hours and after the Pirates blew a 4-3 lead late in the game to go down 8-4, people near me were cheering the Pirates' outs so we could get to Foreigner.
I had never been to a Skyblast concert there before and couldn't imagine how they were going to transform the field immediately after the game. Then I saw the flatbed stage roll out with two more trailers for the speakers. What a concept.
The only thing they don't have is proper lighting, so Foreigner played virtually in the dark. The only way to really see them was to watch the Jumbotron. Just like the Pirates aren't really the Pirates at the moment, Foreigner isn't really Foreigner, as Mick Jones is the only real member. They're just guys wearing the uniform. Thing is, in the dark, they were a good enough imitation of Foreigner on the old hits: "Feels Like the First Time," "Urgent," "Cold As Ice," etc. And now they can freshen the set with a couple new ones like "Can't Slow Down."
The real verdict on the new Foreigner comes when we see next week how the new triple-CD set does on the charts.
Sep 23 2009
You can book Joan Jett for your rally, and she'll draw a crowd, but that doesn't mean she's going to deliver protest songs.
"She's not Bob Dylan," her longtime producer and friend Kenny Laguna said in a ballroom at the Hilton before her short set Wednesday night at Point State Park.
"I'm here because I support the cause," she said, "but my job is to entertain."
Jett flew in late Wednesday afternoon for the Clean Energy Jobs Now rally at the Point, which featured pro-labor, pro-environment speeches by local politicians and representatives of groups like the Sierra Club and the AFL-CIO, and 20-minute sets by the Houserockers, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and Kathy Mattea.
Before the show, the veteran rocker, who turned 51 on Tuesday, paced the ballroom, occasionally out the window at the stage across the street. "I don't like to sit down before a show," she said.
Jett, who was born in Philadelphia and lived in Pittsburgh for a year or so when she was 6, said she was drawn to the event because she knows that the current economy has taken its toll on states like Pennsylvania.
"The bottom line is we used to make things in America and we don't anymore. It's just imperative that people need to make a living."
The concept of clean and green jobs, she said, is the wave of the future. "I would hope to God that America wouldn't be a laggard there."
In town on the eve of the G20 summit, Jett observed that the city seemed to be "in lockdown," but also noted "I'm sure I would definitely be aligned with some of the protests. Depending on what specific issue you're talking about I may agree or disagree, but it's absolutely imperative that leaders get together and discuss these issues that are really grave and important to all of our countries. What are they supposed to do? Not talk."
Pittsburgh in G20 mode was nothing compared to some of the battlegrounds she visited to perform for the troops, including Kosovo and Afghanistan. Even though she didn't support the Bush policies in the war, she felt it was important for her to be there to entertain the troops.
"It's really just the very obvious recognition that we're all the same. After my first band The Runaways broke up, I was really in a bad place. I was really lost and very confused, and I considered for a short time joining a branch of the military just to try to get some direction in my life. I didn't have to do that because I met Kenny about five days later and we wrote songs together and the rest is history. But that gave me insight into the fact that it isn't something to be demonized, it's a ncessary aspect of our life that you have a military and I think it's admirable that people are willing to lay down their lives for the country."
An hour after we talked, Jett headed over to the park and brought a rather sleepy crowd of people to their feet by opening up with "Bad Reputation," and plowing into a short but rousing set of hits that included "I Love Rock and Roll," "Cherry Bomb," "Do You Wanna Touch" and "Crimson and Clover." Folks will be able to find those on a new greatest hits package coming out and in "The Runaways," an upcoming biopic starring Kristen Stewart as Jett back in the days of her all-girl punk band.
Sep 23 2009
The voters for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can calm a lot of people by doing the right thing and just pulling the lever for Kiss, Genesis and the Stooges.
Coming from entirely different genres, they've been among the three bands people have bitched the most about not being in.
Kiss, in its 10th year of eligibility, finally got a nomination yesterday from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation along with other first-timers Genesis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Hollies, LL Cool J and Jimmy Cliff.
The Stooges are returning candidates, with ABBA, the Chantels, Darlene Love, Laura Nyro and Donna Summer.
When Kiss was snubbed for yet another year in 2008, Gene Simmons said during a speech at the Billboard Touring Conference, "There are disco bands, rap bands, Yiddish folk song bands in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, but not Kiss. I believe we have more gold records in America than any other group, but it's OK."
Simmons, soon to be honored by a Mr. Potato Head, is right about this one. Kiss deserves to be in for taking Alice Cooper's shtick to a new level. And Alice Cooper deserves to be in for something up with that shtick in the first place - although his current politics are a bit frowned upon by the liberal foundation.
Genesis, led by the brilliant Peter Gabriel, was another band grossly overlooked by the Hall of Fame, to the point where an online petition was circulating.
If the Stooges can just squeak in, with the Chili Peppers, what will be quite the rocking induction.
The nominees were announced yesterday by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. The 500 or so music industry insiders will vote on which five will be inducted March 15 at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. It will be announced in January.
Sep 18 2009
And the winner is .... Buddy Miller
The singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer took home a box of trophies at the 8th annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show Thursday night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
He won Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year, among others, so we can expect him as a Grammy favorite early next year (not really).
Among those performing were John Fogerty, Asleep At The Wheel, Sam Bush, John Prine with Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell, The Gourds, Raul Malo, The Flatlanders, Reckless Kelly.
Steve's boy, Justin Townes Earle, won New & Emerging Artist of The Year.
Here are the winners:
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: "Written in Chalk," Buddy & Julie Miller
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Buddy Miller
DUO / GROUP OF THE YEAR: Buddy & Julie Miller
NEW & EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Justin Townes Earle
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR: Gurf Morlix
SONG OF THE YEAR: "Chalk" written by Julie Miller, performed by Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FOR PERFORMANCE: Asleep At The Wheel
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FOR EXECUTIVE: Ken Levitan
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FOR SONGWRITER: John Fogerty
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FOR PRODUCER/ENGINEER: Jim Rooney
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FOR INSTRUMENTALIST: Sam Bush
PRESIDENT'S AWARD: Lowell George
Pictured: Emmylou Harris, Justin Townes Earle, Jim Lauderdale, John Fogerty & Buddy Miller
photo by Erika Goldring
Sep 17 2009
Obviously, we haven't had many good nights of baseball in Pittsburgh this year (although I must say I am 3-0 at Pirates games this year).
That said, we good a great night of baseball at Club Cafe Wednesday night with the Baseball Project, a supergroup featuring Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, R.E.M.), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Linda Pitmon (cute and awesome drummer).
That two current members of R.E.M. could play to 100 people is still amazing to me, but it was a Wednesday night in a bad economy and the show probably didn't get much publicity.
What fans got for their $15 was a good chunk of the Baseball Project's debut album, "Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails," songs from their numerous other bands and lots of witty rapport from Wynn and McCaughey.
The funniest was a brief exchange about Barry Bonds.
"You got the tiny Barry Bonds," Wynn said told the crowd.
"He was like the thin man at the circus," McCaughey said, laughing. "He wasn't eating those sandwiches with the french fries."
Highlights from "Frozen Ropes" included "Ted F---ing Williams," one of the harder rockers on the record; "Satchel Paige Said," which went out to the Homestead Grays; the psych-rocker "Sometimes I Dream of Willie Mays"; and the one Pirates entry "Harvey Haddix," which Wynn slowed down to add another perfect game pitcher to the list: Mark Buehrle.
It was mostly straight-ahead guitar rock, with a few ballads thrown in like the Minus 5 song "Dark Hand of Contagion." McCaughey and Buck switch hit on guitar and bass (Buck looked a little bored on bass at times) and all three were capable of stepping to the plate with fierce guitar solos.
For one admission price we got Gutterball ("Trial Separation Blues"), Dream Syndicate ("Medicine Show") and even a hard shot of new Young Fresh Fellows ("Let the Good Times Crawl").
The boys said they were hoping to go busk at PNC Park, but the Pirates were in LA.
The Bucs lost, of course.
The folks at Club Cafe, they all won.
Sep 15 2009
This letter came very close to being in Feedback, but the folk musician who sent it decided to pull it at the last minute:
I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I read Scott Mervis' piece about Kiss Potato Heads. Yet another story about musicians, if they deserve that designation, with infinitely more style than substance.
I can read with regularity about the punk and garage bands who will last precisely as long as the latest hairstyle, while superb local musicians are ignored.
Peter King, Heather Kropf, Mike Strasser, Autumn Ayers, Jack Erdie, Mark Weakland, Mark Perna - and I could go on for my allotted 250 words - work hard at their craft, have studied their respective instruments, finance their own recordings and self-promote all apparently under Mr. Mervis' radar.
If the music business was more about music and less about business the aforementioned would all be household names. I've read more about Gene Simmons' tongue than many an accomplished local musician's body of work. There is a difference between showbiz and music of quality. I'd rather read less of the former and much more of the latter and I'd like to read it in my hometown newspaper.
Not that I want to debate these items point by point, but the PG has indeed published stories about Peter King (a former employee), Heather Kropf, Autumn Ayers and both Marks (Weakland and Perna). We've also write about Bill Deasy, Tom Breidling, Brad Yoder and other guys with acoustic guitars and story songs.
As for the punk and garage bands, I'm not sure who he is referring to, but they tend to be Pittsburgh's biggest exports, whether it's Anti-Flag, The Modey Lemon or Black Moth Super Rainbow.
Concerning the Kiss Potato Heads, how could you look possibly look at those things and not want to play with one?
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Sep 14 2009
Jim Carroll joined the list of "People Who Died" on Friday, Sept. 11.
According to the New York Times, the poet-turned-punk died of a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment.
Carroll's two biggest claims to fame were his 1978 memoirs "The Basketball Diaries," chronicling with his double life as hoops star and heroin addict, and the pulsing rocker "People Who Died," from the Jim Carroll Band's 1980 debut "Catholic Boy." Patti Smith had encouraged him to form the band and Keith Richards helped him work out the deal with Atlantic Records. Carroll, who was mentored by poet Ted Berrigan, also kicked around with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol, and appeared in two of Warhol's films.
The band lasted for three albums and came to Pittsburgh twice, playing the nightclub Heaven (which is now the Renaissance hotel) and the basement of the Stanley Theatre. I remember being up against the stage at Heaven, and recall Carroll being a rather aloof, uncomfortable frontman. It didn't matter much as the band and the poetry carried it.
After that brief stint, Carroll returned to writing and the reading circuit, but did release a solo album, "Pools of Mercury," in 1998.
Sep 02 2009
He sounded a lot better on the country tunes, so it's no surprise the third-place finisher's post-Idol career will involve a hat and boots.
Gokey, who gained a lot of sympathy on the show as a recent widower, has signed a deal with 19 Recordings/RCA Records Nashville.
He said in a statement: "There were country songs that I performed on the show, and it was the message and the feeling in those kinds of songs that helped me realize that country is where I belong. I grew up in a family where I was exposed to music from artists like Alan Jackson and Wynonna and Brooks & Dunn, and when Randy Travis was on the show and asked me if I'd ever considered country music, it was one more sign of where I knew I needed to be."
The 29-year-old from Milwaukee will release his debut next year.