Category Archives: steve

Is There Life On Mars?

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Got permission to publish this story sent to me the other day from my guitar-playing friend Phil Pilorz. Yes, both he and I know that “Take Me To The River” isn’t originally Talking Heads.

This is musical reality in the real world:

I’m doing a pick-up gig on Saturday with a bunch of guys. We got together tonight to run over some sets.

The keyboard player had left blank spots in the sets for tunes I would do. When we got around to trying to figure out what songs I would sing I hit them up with “Sweet Jane.” Started the riff, sang the first verse, got nothing but complete blank stares. They had never heard the song in their lives. Never really heard of Lou Reed. So I started “Take Me To The River”. Blank stares. Never heard the song, never heard of Talking Heads. Actually, one guy had. He knew “Burning Down The House.” The keyboard player suggested “Johnny B. Goode.”

I’m glad I didn’t hit them with “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

Both Sides Now.

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Shortly after launching this rock raft of a blog, I proposed that we create a consensus Top 50 Essential Rock and Roll Albums. Something of a canon for Rock Remnant aficionados, and also a source of referral cash if we ever develop some traffic here.

As these things do, however, this project was quickly reduced to a playground of competing visions of what we were trying to do. Some of this was technical (I limited my list to one appearance per artist, Lawr allowed no compilations or best ofs), and some of this turned on taste. I picked 50 elpees that I hope demonstrated the breadth of rock, from juju to conjunto to rap to rock and pop, while others picked the albums they’d take with them to the proverbial desert island.

But perhaps the most interesting twist was Moyer’s vehemence against folky girls on the top albums list, a discussion that soon became a referendum on whether Joni Mitchell was rock or not.

That’s a discussion we may have on this site some day in more detail, but for now we have Hole’s take on Clouds…

Best Rock Interview Ever

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If I have to explain, you don’t get it. Hank is likely strung out on heroin here. Brillant anyway.

Well Worth Two Minutes Of Your Time

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Because it feels right today. I would have printed the lyrics for you but they aren’t out there. Listen an extra time or two if necessary.

Must-See Movie

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My favorite rock doc is “It Might Get Loud” and, at the beginning of “Sound City” I thought it might be even better. It wasn’t, but it was still really, really good. I wish they would’ve focused more on the bands I like, rather than some I don’t like so much. However, I should feel lucky several of my very favorite bands are in it at all. And, if the whole movie was about those bands I like, no one would watch it, because no one likes the bands I like.

Later the movie gets into a lot of analog versus digital, which is interesting. If you want a compelling, digestible argument for analog, read the liner notes on The Hellacopters’ “Supershitty To The Max” (number three on my All-Time list). Yet another reason to buy it.

I rented “Sound City” via video on demand from my cable company, so it shouldn’t be very hard to find.

A Little Story Sure To Please Everyone

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Earlier this year Dave Grohl revealed that Elton John would join his band Queens of the Stone Age on a song when the rock album hit stores later this year. Frontman Josh Homme had a chance to explain how that collaboration came about during a recent interview.

The scene Homme describes sounds straight from a movie. The classic rocker was riding in his car listening to Them Crooked Vultures (another Grohl side project) when his assistant recommended he turn to Queens of the Stone Age. “The guy driving the car was an old roommate of mine,” Homme told London’s XFM radio. “So all of a sudden, I get a phone call at my house on a Sunday. I picked it up and he said, ‘Hello Josh, this is Elton.’ I thought someone was messing with me.”

Elton John cut through any potential nervousness by quickly saying, “The only thing missing from your band is an actual queen.”

For Peter K

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When I posted my top 20 Albums of All-Time, Peter was particularly affected by “More Specials.” And, bless his heart, later I found out he’s listening to the Queens “Rated R.” Thank you, Peter. Thank you. This is for you. Yes, The Specials version is much better, but I like this. Kind of like Metallica doing “Wire Out” by Supershit (which they should).

A Band That Should Be Much More Interesting Than They Are

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Have you guys heard of Ghost BC yet? I swear they’re gonna be a next big thing. Combining a singer with the best face paint ever and backup musicians with no names (just Nameless Ghoul number whatever) is pretty cool. Apologies to you older guys, but I still get caught up in my childhood KISS fixation with bands like this. Believe it or not, KISS was once scary and menacing (my younger brother, who is now an elementary school principal – way too much principaling in my background – was frightened by the first KISS album cover when I bought it way back in ’73) even though they’ve been family-friendly for as long as most anyone can remember. Believe me, I’m put off as you are, knowing now that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were only out to rape me of the little money I made as a 15-year-old back in the day.

Then there was The Misfits, the KISS of punk, whom I adored. Saw them at the legendary 4th Street Saloon in Bethlehem, PA back when they were small-time. The guitarist, Bobby Steele, chucked his guitar into my friend’s leg (and it hurt!). We – as a bunch of little under-age kids (under-age kids could get into bars back then) – “hung out” with them backstage in a cramped little room where they pretty much ignored us. Saw them later at Northampton County Community College with Reagan Youth (if you want to read a f’d up story, read about their singer Dave Insurgent/Rubinstein on Wiki).

Anyway, I wanted real bad to discover something new with Ghost BC. A friend of mine introduced me to them months ago and, now since they’re getting more attention, I checked them out again. But the music is just too damn poppy. I’m the last guy for death metal and cookie monster vocals, but the music should be more menacing than this.

Oh well, the new Queens album is out now and I can’t wait to DRIVE TO THE RECORD STORE AND BUY THE CD. More on that later.

What do you think?

I’ve Been Looking At Those Tiles At The Top Of This Blog For Days

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What does it mean? A square full of tiles. A square not quite full of tiles. A square even less full of tiles. Is it artsy? Is it fartsy? WTF?

The 20 Greatest Albums Of All-Time According To Me, Described In 20 Words Or Less

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By Steve Moyer

I’ve decided that the best testament I can give to my existence is to review my entire music collection (including these), because I have been absolutely intimate with the good stuff, not like some music critic dude who listens once and writes. I will do this little by little. So here’s the teaser. Obviously, I don’t give a rat’s ass about the albums that are “supposed to be” in everyone’s top 20 (not that I don’t like some of those, they’re just not in my top 20). Oh well. These are what I’m taking to the desert island.

If you’re interested in checking this stuff out, PLEASE don’t download, or worse yet, youtube one song and then pass judgment. Buy the whole thing, preferably a bricks and mortar version. Listen to it at least five times, in its entirety. Look at the pictures. Read the liner notes. That’s how albums are meant to be enjoyed. Enough is enough.

I reserve the right to change this list any time for any reason.

2151NH5G8DL__AA160_1) Supershit 666 – Self-Titled (2002) – Not a bad second to be found. Best ever six songs in a row. Perfect. Expensive. Worth every penny.
2) Apocalypse Dudes – Turbonegro (1999) – If all the songs on “Raw Power” were as good as “Search and Destroy” and “Gimme Danger.”
3) Supershitty To The Max – Hellacopters (1997) – “Hell, hell’s exactly what they raised.”
4) Ass Cobra – Turbonegro (1997) – I thought I had outgrown hardcore until I heard this a few years ago. Late to the party.
5) Masters Of Reality – Self-Titled (1988) – They’d be Guns And Roses if Chris Goss wasn’t fat and ugly. Salvages ‘80s music all by itself.
images6) Hydromatics – Parts Unknown (2003) – Soul meets kick ass. Expensive. Worth every penny.
7) Queens Of The Stone Age – R (2000) – Makes you feel like you’ve done something bad. Really bad.
8) Cream Of The Crap Volume I – Hellacopters (2002) – Primo mostly Dregen-era Hellacopters. Extraordinary cover material.
9) Cream Of The Crap Volume II – Hellacopters (2004) – Primo mostly later Hellacopters. Extraordinary cover material.
cover_5930587200710) Second Thoughts – Split Enz (1976) – Very weird and mostly mellow. Nothing like their later stuff. Never heard an album like it before or since.
11) High Voltage/Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap/Let There Be Rock/Powerage (1976-1978 – impossible to sort them out) – Bon Scott AC/DC. Boogie woogie rock ‘n’ roll at its best. “Highway To Hell” omitted on purpose.
12) Mott The Hoople – The Hoople (1974) – Critics always favor the Mick Ralphs stuff, but this is the best and most rocking.
images-113) Slade – Sladest (1973) – I teethed on the American version of this album, which doesn’t really exist anymore. More boogie woogie rock ‘n’ roll.
14) Blue Oyster Cult – Secret Treaties (1974) – Made me feel like I was doing bad things when I was 14. Really bad. Still really good.
15) The Specials – More Specials (1980) – Grooves heavily beginning to end. Appreciated more now than when released. Never heard an album like it before or since.
16) Angry Samoans – Back From Samoa (1982) – Very offensive, catchy, next-to-perfect SoCal hardcore album. The 80’s weren’t so bad if you went looking, I guess.
Angry Samoans - Back From Samoa17) David Bowie – Hunky Dory/Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1971-1972) – Sorry, can’t sort these out either. There were other pioneer oddball rockers, but never better than this.
18) Devo – Are We Not Men? (1978) – A bunch of geniuses far ahead of their time. Often wrongly dismissed as a joke.
19) Judas Priest – Sad Wings Of Destiny (1976) – Really heavy in a Black Sabbath kind of way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
20) Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak (1976) – Includes two very overplayed songs, but it’s not their fault. Lizzy’s other albums are uneven, but this is excellent throughout.