Category Archives: steve

Lohse Gets Bombed: Arctic Monkeys

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I had my 12-year-old for the Easter weekend and she turned me on to this song by Arctic Monkeys. I’ve read good things about them in the past, but never dived/dove/deeved in.

This song is so Queensy it’s ridiculous. Did they copy? QOTSA started in 1996, AM started in 2002. You tell me.

Yet whereas (Jack White thinks and I agree), the Black Keys copied the White Stripes and Jack White hates them for it, I’m pretty sure king Queen Josh Homme is good friends with the Monkeys.

In any case, I’m so desperate for good music I don’t already know right now, I’m gonna give it a try. Mary Lou played two other songs for me – one was equally Queensy and the other was T. Rex. (Did you know Marc Bolan was only copied by about a trillion bands and isn’t within 10 football fields of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame? If I’ve said that a trillion times before, please get used to it.)

Haile Wreckommended: Must-See Flickee

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More the music of you guys than me (Lawr especially), just saw this tonight and it was quite excellent. Not quite It Might Get Loud (more my music than yours), still quite excellent nonetheless.

My guess is you guys probably know the gist – this bunch of unheralded primo musicians made the entire 60’s more like The Monkees than anyone wanted to admit at the time. Please do see it. You will like it:

Grape Ape: Wake Up Website

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The Unband were a flash in the pan, leaving behind just one album and a most excellent, non-typical rock book Gentlemanly Repose: Confessions Of A Debauched Rock ‘n’ Roller. Their album is a gem, though somewhat inconsistent. If everything was as great as the great stuff, it would be top 50 material (it may have even made my top 50 – I don’t remember). I posted their fine cover of Billy Squier’s Everybody Wants You a long time ago.

This video rocks like hell and explores several abstract themes, none of which make a lick of sense to me.

Monkeys are funny.

Hey Hey: Cool Pic

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My friend sent me a link to an article about Blondie that included this photo from 1980. Reminds me of a cross between that picture of the original Baseball Hall of Fame inductees all sitting together you’ve seen a million times before and that Ellen selfie of the stars from last year’s Oscars.

Can you name them all?

Debbie-with-others_3211932c

Chips & Pretzels: Why The Radio Sucks

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One of a bunch of reasons, I guess.

Decided to listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Nuthin’ Fancy tonight. I don’t choose Skynyrd that often and I haven’t heard this one in years.

But I really enjoyed it and ran into this bluesy, sleazy, party rocker, with which I was well pleased.

Got me to thinking, long ago this was a somewhat popular Skynyrd tune. But geez, I haven’t heard it in ages. Why is that? Because the radio sucks.

There’s the pool of an artist’s complete work from which we personally choose what we like and don’t like. That’s fine and dandy – the natural order of things. The artist pool and the personal pool vary in size from artist to artist, on a personal level.

But here’s the rub – radio, and at least the basic version of Pandora or whatever streaming service one chooses – reduces the artist pool to five or six songs, sometimes as little as a couple. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s predigested song pool doesn’t include this song. I think it may have years ago, but as LS got dated, songs got dropped.

Why are most folks content with this? AC/DC – Highway To Hell, Back In Black, Dirty Deeds, You Shook Me All Night Long, TNT. Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes, All The Way From Memphis. Old ZZ Top – La Grange, Tush. Etc. I could name the artist and I’m sure you could name the radio catalogue.

Blech.

Morning Borning: The Real ZZ Top

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Everybody comes back and now the hot topic is The Sound Of Music. Rock ‘n’ roll! Yeah, sure.

Listened to ZZ Top’s best last night, Tres Hombres and Fandango. Them be two mighty fine albums, folks. I don’t think I included either in my Top 50, but they wouldn’t be far below. And if I re-did my list today, they might crack it. The live side of Fandango is mostly a waste, but the studio side makes up for it by being near-perfect. Tres Hombres isn’t perfect, but consistently excellent throughout.

This song was in Dazed And Confused, which we’ve discussed recently and kudos to Linklater for including this and not just the obvious Tush.

The feel of this song has a lot in common with early KISS. I don’t understand how one could like one and not the other. My guess is it’s that damn facepaint and antics. The song has little in common with later boring, commercial, synthesized, beardy ZZ Top. I’ve read they’ve somewhat come to their senses and returned to their roots, but I haven’t gone there (yet).

Hope this driver had a six-pack for the road.

Material Needed: Midnight Moses Volume II/I

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The batphone rings at my house when no one (mostly Peter) posts in 24 hours.

A while ago I posted that fantastic lip-synch video of Sensational Alex Harvey Band doing Midnight Moses – one of my all-time faves. Later I found this, the original Midnight Moses, also written by Alex Harvey, but pre-SAHB.

Over the past 20 years or so it’s been very common to re-do hard rock with orchestras, bluegrass outfits, horns, etc. But what genius it was to perform the reverse way back in the early 70s. Gotta love those Shaft-y guitars.