A design studio named Dorothy has released a survey of alt-rock music based on the schematic design of a transistor radio that came out in 1954, the year Bill Haley released Rock Around the Clock.
That’s a detail from a much larger image over to the left.
I’m not sure about the information included in the diagram. I mean why do the Ramones lead to Mink Deville lead to Talking Heads.
Why is Elvis Costello in smaller type than the Specials?
Why aren’t the White Stripes next to the Black Keys?
There are many of these questions, which seem to be answered rather randomly. That said, there is a broader logic as to time and place and style, and it’s good fun browsing using the magnification tool. h/t Herrick Goldman.
His parents were paid $200 when he modeled 25 years ago. The photography asked him if he’d take $200 again to celebrate the 25th anniversary and he said yes. Read about it here.
The most surprising aspect of our Spotify subscription is that Diane is crazy for it. She is admittedly not a music junkie like any of us here at the Remnants, in fact I asked what artists she followed and she promptly replied, “none.”
She just likes listening to playlists with high energy stuff she can work out to, and soul and funk from any era she can bop to while driving her car. But, I was surprised when she sent me a link to a song the other day, and I could not help but think of the song as analogous to other generations of horny post pubescent music junkies.
The first instance of song where boys are pleading for sex I could think of was the wonderful Good Golly Miss Molly by the one and only Little Richard, who was certainly clear about the whole sex/music thing in the fifties. This was at a time when saying words like “panties” were verboten on screen, for example, as shown in this clip from the Otto Preminger’s 1959 film, Anatomy of a Murder.
This clip of Richard, covering his tune, released in 1958, a year before Anatomy of a Murder came out, speaks for itself with respect to lyrical content, but this clip was so perfect, as it is Richard live, playing for Muhammad Ali’s 50th birthday. And, well I have been thinking a lot about the loss of the great Ali as well as that of Prince, recently, and what a huge loss to our planet their spirits is.
The 60’s were not much better, and though this is indeed my favorite song by the Beach Boys, it is so lily-white in the Pat Boone’s cover of Little Richard’s Tutti Fruitti, sense, it makes my skin crawl. But, Brian Wilson could only hint at a time when “making love” still was kind of like Laurence Olivier suggesting the wooing of Joan Fontaine in Rebecca meant sweet talk behind a potted plant.
Here is the Beach Boys supporting that in the middle class white world very little changed over the 20 or so years between Rebecca and Don’t Worry Baby (which included that awful Boone shit in the middle of the time span). By the way, I love the song, but is this the worst “video” ever?
But, 50 years after Don’t Worry Baby, reality has struck and the world has simultaneously gone to hell in a hand basket, as witnessed by this song, by Strip Johnny, that popped up on Diane’s “Discover Weekly.” She heard it and just had to share with me.
Truth is, I really like this last song a lot! Not as much as Little Richard, though. At least not just yet.
My friend Angela found a version of the Modern Lovers’ Old World today which is pretty swell. I mean the video. This is one of rock’s greatest albums, and Warren Loft’s videos, at least the three I’ve seen, capture the music’s kinetics and precision and depth. I’ll be watching the rest of them, but what better way to start than Roadrunner.
There’s a story in today’s NY Times about some guys who get together in a garage in Queens (NY) and podcast their takes on recent rock news. They also have guests. This week: CJ Ramone. Other weeks? Steve Albini and the guy who directed the movie Riot on the Dance Floor, about that New Jersey club, City Gardens, that everybody says was legendary.
These guys are in their 40s, by the way. And one of them has an actual bar in his garage, where his wife lets him hang out so he doesn’t hang out with his friends in their house. And probably ruin their kids. I don’t know. It’s a fun story well worth reading.
Which reminds me that the Remnants have talked about doing their own podcast. I think we think it would mostly be music. But I suspect there will be talking. I have some ideas for features:
Remnants Telephone. One Remnant plays a song, then the other Remnants in turn each play a song with some connection to the preceding song. After the four songs are played, each Remnant in turn says why he chose his song and its relation to the preceding song. Conversation ensues.
This Day In Rock. Each Remnant, or one Remnant, tells a story about something that happened in history on that date, and conversation ensues.
Song of the Week. Tom plays and explains his song. Conversation ensues.
Prick up your ears. One Remnant plays a contemporary song, a find, a discovery, others listen, conversation ensues.
Outro. Four (or five, if Tom is in) songs, without comment or conversation, one each by a Remnant.
Fade to black.
In subsequent episodes we start with clips from the Outro and comments by Remnants and we hope eventually listeners and commenters about the songs. And so the snake eats its tail. And we eat our tale.
But maybe you have other ideas? Like what does Moyer think about Graveyard now? Some of us have bated breath. Some of us have abated caring.
A design studio named Dorothy has released a survey of alt-rock music based on the schematic design of a transistor radio that came out in 1954, the year Bill Haley released Rock Around the Clock.
