Sign Here Online

I think Sign Here Online is a very cool idea. Unsigned bands join the service and upload songs to the website (for a fee) as a method of promoting their music and soliciting record label offers. Music fans vote on the unreleased songs posted to the site and the results of these votes are tabulated and made available to record labels. It doesn’t currently feature too many bands but I think I’ll see what they have to offer and cast a vote or two since it’s free. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Later.

Cool Quote by Nietzche

I just came across a very cool quote by Nietzche at the Mac Mothership that I feel sums up my “philosophy” quite well:

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently.”
-Nietzsche

Something to think about. Now back to the Rock and Roll!
Later.

Cool Webzine Alert! Movement Magazine

If you are looking for an interesting indie magazine/webzine with some interesting music coverage then check out Movement Magazine. A lot of cool record reviews and news from all around the world. I like it.
Later.

Now this is Rock and Roll! The Surfacers

Tell me if this doesn’t sound cool: Listening to reverb drenched surf music played on a secluded beach somewhere in Argentina with a bunch of your best friends. No it’s not some contest we’re running but a description of how Argentinian surf-rock band and Green Cookie recording artists The Surfacers started 2004. Their “Wild Surf Tour” had them rocking up and down the Argentinian coast playing their particular brand of instrumental surf rock and roll on any beach that would take them. Formed in 1998, The Surfacers are an excellent instrumental surf band that would make Dick Dale proud. You can almost hear the waves crashing down on the beach with this stuff blasting out of the stereo. Check out the “Devil Sounds” section of their site for some cool song samples. An Argentinian surf-rock band on a cool Greek rock and roll record label. Now how cool is that?
Later.

Crossing Abbey Road

The legendary Abbey Road Studios is best known as being the recording studio home of The Beatles but in fact Abbey Road has recorded everybody from the Pretty Things to Oasis. History has literally been made there on numerous occasions. If you have always wanted to visit but can’t get across the pond, check out their very cool webcam which is trained on the legendary crossing from the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” cover. Pretty neat.
Later.

Now this is rock and roll! The Limit

Do you miss the days of “10″ and “VS” era Pearl Jam when they were less about politics and more about hard rock-tinged rock and roll? Then check out The Limit who remind me quite a bit of the Pearl Jam of old. Based out of Connecticut, USA, The Limit are a great band that shouldn’t get lumped in with any “Nu” category as they just rock out with conviction and style, pure and simple. Check out their Links/MP3 page for some downloads to taste and see what you think. Great stuff.
Later.

Between the Cracks – Great Rock and Roll That Time Forgot: Blodwyn Pig – “Ahead Rings Out”

Between the Cracks is a semi-regular feature of The Rock and Roll Report. Its purpose is to help rescue, from the dustbin of history, some of the great albums of the late sixties and early seventies that are ignored by the so-called “classic rock, all the hits all the time” corporate radio stations, and which have been forgotten by almost everyone except a few diehard fans. If you’re dissatisfied with a lot of the music that’s being offered today, there’s plenty of great old stuff out there just waiting to be re-discovered.

Blodwyn Pig – “Ahead Rings Out” (A&M Records, 1969)

Blodwyn Pig was founded in 1969 by Mick Abrahams, who was the original guitarist with Jethro Tull. After the release of Jethro Tull’s first album, Abrahams lost a power struggle with Ian Anderson over the musical direction of the band and struck off to form his own group. Comprising Abrahams on guitar and vocals, bassist Andy Pyle (who has played with practically everybody at one time or another), drummer Ron Berg, and saxophonist Jack Lancaster, Blodwyn Pig offered up an energetic blend of blues and jazz flavored hard rock. At times, “Ahead Rings Out” is reminiscent of Jethro Tull, but for the most part it offers up a unique and original sound built around Abrahams’ tasty guitar work and Jack Lancaster’s jazzy sax riffs (at times, he even played two saxes simultaneously in the manner of the great Rahsaan Roland Kirk).

The band also possessed a wicked,off-beat sense of humor as is evidenced by the cover of “Ahead Rings Out.” It’s a head shot of a real pig sporting headphones, sunglasses, and a nose ring, and with a suspicious looking hand rolled cigarette jutting from its mouth. Anyone who was around in St. Louis during the seventies will instantly recognize it as the old logo for rock station KSHE-FM.

Mick Abrahams’ whimsical liner notes are also quite entertaining, and feature such off-the-wall comments as, “For best results when listening to this number dip your head into a large bucket of red paint, dial 999, and run gaily into the street stark naked, shouting death to the evil trouser worm and his wicked accomplices.” To Blodwyn Pig, that’s what rock and roll was all about, and it’s hard to argue with a sentiment like that!

Today, Mick Abrahams is still going strong, and off and on over the years has kept Blodwyn Pig alive in one form or another. He has also released several solo works. For more information, visit his website at http://www.mickaby.freeola.com/index.htm

Peter Gabriel on Digital Downloading

Peter Gabriel, rock and roll’s very own “renaissance man” has some interesting things to say about digital downloading in CNN’s Peter Gabriel on the Digital Revolution. “The future should be [that] you can get anything, anytime, from wherever you are, anywhere, and whoever you are, whatever country, whatever language you speak.” He might be an idealist but the man does know what he is talking about and he will play a part in shaping the digital future as he is a musician who understands technology, a rare combination indeed.
Later.

The Rock and Roll Report Radio Spotlight is on Club Au GoGo Radio

Club Au GoGo Radio plays “a swingin’ mix of midsixties British/European and American Beat, RnB, Garage, Frat, Soul, Surf, and Freakbeat. Bands featured: Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, Who, Outsiders, Sonics, Yardbirds, Shadows, Downliner Sect, Hollies, Remains, Swinging Bluejeans, Q-65, Animals, Kingsmen, Sorrows, Motions, Wailers, Birds, Eyes, Raiders, Small Faces, Creation, Count Five, Manfred Mann, Jay-Jays, Music Machine, Easybeats, Chocolate Watchband, and many, many more…We’re also showcasing some of the best bands of the last 20 years, such as The Kaisers, Headcoats, Tell Tale Hearts, Kravin A’s and Crawdaddys…and more…” A great Live 365 station broadcasting out of LA, Club Au GoGo is affiliated with the very cool Club Au GoGo mid-sixties style night club in Hollywood, California where there is always something very cool going on. Get out those gogo boots and ascots and check it out!
Later.

The Rules of the Remake

I was driving in my car the other day when the song “Mexican Radio” came on by Wall of Voodoo. Only problem was it wasn’t Wall of Voodoo at all, but it was indeed “Mexican Radio”.
Thoughts ran through my head in this order:

1. “I didn’t know someone remade “Mexican Radio”.
2. “I didn’t think someone NEEDED to remake “Mexican Radio”.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good remake as much as the next girl, but there are definite, unwritten rules to the remake.

They go a little something like this:

1. Don’t remake a song that was already really good UNLESS you have something new and original to add to it.
2. Don’t remake a bad song UNLESS you can make it good.
3. Never let your remake become bigger than any original song you’ve done on your own. (i.e. Jeffrey “In Your Eyes” Gaines).

It’s not so much that this new version of “Mexican Radio” was bad. It couldn’t be. Because it sounded almost EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL SONG!

At any rate, hearing the song prompted me to research if there was an actual remake and it turns out there was more than one. The good news though is that I’m currently reading about some remakes of interest that I didn’t know about.

Got a good remake you this is worth a listen?

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