Blog Archives
A Sun Ra Christmas
Hope everybody is enjoying their holidays with friends and family, safe travels, delicious food and the surprises that the season might bring. Speaking of surprises, it seems that Sun Ra celebrated Christmas. Here’s another surprise — he broadcast his celebration on the radio. Here’s the skinny from Open Culture… Everybody spreads holiday cheer in their [...]
The Velvet Underground at 45
The Velvet Underground’s self-titled third record turns 45 this year and has just been rewarded with
The Yardbirds at 50
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Yardbird’s debut album Five Live Yardbirds. At first glance, the album appears to be just another British Invasion knock-off packed with blues covers — in fact, the band had just taken over the Rolling Stones’ old residency at the Crawdaddy Club before recording this live collection. [...]
Cohen Intelligence Agency
I’ve blogged about Leonard Cohen’s use of LSD on this illuminated scroll before. Today as I was sorting stories for the Remnants Flipboard when I came across this bizarre report from Abel Danger about Leonard Cohen’s involvement with early CIA LSD experiments in the 1950′s. Here’s the word… The man in the photo, taken at [...]
Remembering Altamont
This past Saturday marked the 45th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ concert at the Altamont Speedway. The chaotic scene ended in multiple injuries, four accidental deaths including hit-and-run accidents and a drowning as well as the stabbing murder of Meredith Hunter. Characterized as a kind-of anti-Woodstock, the Altamont Free Concert is now a symbol for [...]
Rolling Stone Passes On
Brian Jones is dead. He drowned in his pool in the aftermath of being kicked out of the band. The facts are fuzzy and there’s reason to believe that he may have been the victim of foul play. Brian was a symbol of peace and love, and his passion for the blues will live on [...]
DIG! Turns 10
10 years ago, DIG! won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and this year we recognize its ten year birthday. The film, directed by Ondi Timoner, draws on seven years of footage, following both The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Comparing and contrasting the development of the bands’ [...]
Gram’s Day
Yesterday I was obsessing about the election, but today I’m pointing at an important something else — the birthday of Gram Parsons. The pioneering singer/songwriter married country music and rock, fusing sincere narratives, steel guitars and an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Nashville, Austin and Bakersfield to the sex and drugs aesthetics of country’s ruder [...]
Blind Faith: Revelation
This year marks the the 45th anniversary of the debut of one the first supergroups: Blind Faith. The band boasted Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream, little Stevie Winwood from Traffic and Ric Grech, bass player for the progressive rock outfit Family and an jam session pal to both Clapton and Winwood. Blind Faith’s [...]
New Who
While we’ll never settle the Beatles/Stones question it’s easy to forget the greatness that was The Who. Of course, the band is still putting out music, but, for me, something is missing — that something, of course, is Keith Moon and John Entwistle. That said, there are records that I revisit every year. At the [...]
