Monday, July 19, 2010

SAD NEWS OF THE DAY 7-19-10



Andy Hummel, the original bassist from Big Star lost his fight with cancer just two months after we lost Alex Chilton to a heart attack.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

UNNECESSARY COLLABORATION OF THE DAY! 7-17-10

Beck does these things were he invites different bands and artists to come in to his studio and he collaborates with them to recreate or de-create some 'seminal' record for his free downloadable record club. I will state for the record I am not a Beck fan. My dislike for him has been tested many times over the years but dislike, as cement and arteries do, has set and strengthened with time. That said, he has had some pretty interesting ideas and collaborations for his record club. Not all but some. Well, this month he has Tortoise and they are riffing on some Yanni record. Now I'll let you guess which part about this equation I like the least... go ahead. I'll give you three guesses..... You won't guess it. Ok, ok... I'll tell you. ALL OF IT. The Yanni thing... come on. Beck and his sidemen scratching and rustling things into microphones... poop. Just let Tortoise be Tortoise! They are so freaking good at it! In my opinion, they get better at it and better at it. Yes, good for them for stepping out of their comfort zone and trying something like this... but a lot of the time, stepping out of their comfort zone IS their thing. I would just rather have watched Tortoise do their thing without Beck and his merry jokesters forcing them into some ill-fitting square hole. My two cents.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

CHICAGO ICON OF THE DAY! 7-15-10


For those of you who lived in Chicago in the 70's and 80's, this needs no explanation. For the rest of you, this is one of the huge Magikist signs from the Chicago company that were seen on their building on south Cicero but more visible was the one overlooking the 90/94 highway. It was your "welcome to Chicago from the northern suburbs" sign. It's how you knew it wasn't too far now to go to be downtown. This was as familiar to Chicagoans as the Sears Tower and Wrigley Field... and was DECADES before we even knew what a 'cloudgate' was. I would love to buy this baby, reinstall the neon, and return it to it's perch up above the highway.

It is on eBay RIGHT NOW (or at least when I wrote this post). BUY IT NOW!!!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

HAPPY BEATLE BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 7-7-10


Ringo! 70?!! wow! Here is Cher (before she was Cher) singing what we all are thinking.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 7-1-10

Oh, Fred Schneider... what an enigma you are. I hope you have a very happy birthday... your 59th I believe.



After years of hits and misses with his B-52's (Rock Lobster, Planet Claire, Love Shack), Fred stepped out on his own with his first solo record in 1984. In 1996, he entered the studio with Steve Albini (Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac) to record his second solo record. Albini pulled together different folks from his punk rock circle to make up backing bands for this new Fred record including members of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Tar, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Didjits, and Six Finger Satellite. Could this have been a disaster? Well, it should have been, right?! Somehow it turned out great! I don't know how and I don't want to look at it too closely for fear it will collapse like a house of cards...

Mayfair composer Chris Fuller toured with Fred for that record. Ask him about it. I'm sure he has a boatload of stories as big as a whale!