Happy Halloween!

Cover Story – “A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan”, cover by W.A. Williams

All images Copyright 1988-90, 1998 and 2007 W.A. Williams – www.wawilliams.com

Subject – A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan – a 1996 CD & DVD release from Sony Music Entertainment, with cover photography by W.A. Williams

A short while ago, I wrote a Cover Story based on an interview with photographer Robert M. Knight and his photos of guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan. The response to this article was astounding – although SRV’s been gone 17 years, his fan base is a DEDICATED one and his music brings great joy to them (and to anyone else lucky enough to be within earshot).

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Rock and Roll Report Blitz: Smallman Records

Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Smallman Records is an amazing indie record label that has championed the little guy since it’s creation in 1997. Founded by Rob Krause and Jason Smith, Smallman has consistently supported bands that were just starting out, acting not only as their record label but taking on management duties for a number of the bands as well.

Check out their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/smallmanrecords and have a listen to current signings Sick City, Broadway Calls, Sights and Sounds and Daggermouth for a taste of their punk rockin’ sound.

Later.

Mark

Rebecca’s Picks – Album’s You Should Own: Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin

Track List
1. The Song Remains The Same (Page, Plant)
2. The Rain Song (Page, Plant)
3. Over The Hills And Far Away (Page, Plant)
4. The Crunge (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
5. Dancing Days (Page, Plant)
6. D’yer Mak’er (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
7. No Quarter (Jones, Page, Plant)
8. The Ocean (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)

Released March 1973, by Atlantic Records
Produced by Jimmy Page

Band Members: Jimmy Page-guitars, John Paul Jones-bass, piano, organ, mellotron, harpsichord, synthesizers, John Bonham-drums, Robert Plant-vocals, harmonica

If I were abducted by aliens and they asked me to define rock and roll, I would hand them a pair of headphones and crank this album.

Track by track, it is probably Led Zeppelin’s most diverse. Houses Of The Holy is their fifth album, and their last recording for Atlantic Records. There is classic riff-driven Zeppelin- “The Song Remains The Same”, a ballad- “The Rain Song” a reggae influence on “D’yer Mak’er”, and the best song ever for strapping on the headphones and lighting up-”No Quarter”.How many rock songs do you know of that feature a harpsichord? Interestingly, the song “Houses Of The Holy” didn’t make it on this album. It was released on their next recording, “Physical Graffitti”.

Led Zeppelin’s catalog will be made available on Itunes soon. Buy this entire album. It has been remastered, and sounds better than ever.

Rebecca

Roczine is almost here!

Just a quick note that the second issue of Roczine featuring my brand new column called The Rock and Roll Report (5 points for originality!) should be off the printing presses as you read this. Make sure you check out the magazine’s site at www.myspace.roczine to find out where you can get your copy ’cause it rocks!

Later.

The Rock and Porn Report

You know, I don’t know if it’s just me but the rock and porn world continue to get all cozy cozy these days.

First we have Vince Neil’s Off the Strip Poker Tournament taking place November 3, 2007 inside The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Vegas. Hosted by adult film stars Tera Patrick and Taylor Wayne, all proceeds from the poker tournament and charity auctions will benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation via the Skylar Neil Memorial Fund, established in 1995 by Vince to honor his daughter Skylar who passed away from cancer. Since that time, Vince’s charitable efforts have helped to raise nearly two million dollars for the T.J. Martell Foundation. It’s kind of hard to find any fault with this knowing that it is a fund raiser you must admit.

Continuing our tour through the rock and porn world everybody’s favourite rock reality host and adult film director Dave Navarro speaks to Rock Confidential about his directorial debut with “Dave Navarro: Broken.” Apparently once you’ve been through heroin and cocaine addiction, the murder of your mom and Jane’s Addiction the thing to do is direct a porn flick. I suppose that’s one way to deal with it!

Later.

Mark

Armitage Shanks Playlist for October 22, 2007

OK, things have been going to hell in a hand basket with the Drastic Plastic playlists these last few weeks. I lost, then recovered, then lost again Armitage’s last playlist, Doug’s playlist got eaten by the dog apparently and I almost deleted this week’s playlist by accident…twice!

So before I hit the wrong button again, here is Armitage Shanks’ playlist for October 22, 2007. Notice the in-studio picture? Must have been taken by one of the bevy of scantily clad UK rock babes that hang out at the station during Armitage’s show. Lucky bastard…

Artist – Album – Song

The Streets - Radio 1 Established 1967 - Your Song
Foo Fighters - Radio 1 Established 1967 - Band on the Run
Babyshambles - Shotters Nation - Carry on Up the Morning
Hard-Fi - Once Upon A Time in the West - Can’t Get Along (Without You)
Jack Penate - Matinee - Second, Minute or Hour
The Pigeon Detectives - Wait for Me - I’m Not Sorry
Athlete - Beyond the Neighbourhood - Hurricane
The Enemy - We’ll Live and Die in These Towns - You’re Not Alone
The Cribs - Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever - Moving Pictures
Kate Nash - Made of Bricks - Mouthwash
The Twang - Love It When I Feel Like This - Two Lovers
Pet Shop Boys - Disco Four - Read My Mind

drastic plastic 128kbps Podcast
(link good for one week from podcast)

Rock and Roll Report Blitz: She Craves

From Austin Texas comes the full on rock and roll attack of She Craves. Rockin’ out behind their debut CD Goodbye Radio Days, She Craves have enough crunchy, smash mouth choruses and rock and roll oomph that you will be continuously nodding your head in ready agreement.

Personally I love Wake Me Up and You Move Me but that’s just me. Check out their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/shecraves and have a listen for yourself.

Later.

Mark

The podcast has been delayed…

The first four podcasts have been recorded but we have run into a technical snafu that is preventing me from posting them to the site.

If any of you are WordPress gurus, have you heard of a conflict between the PodPress plug-in and the standard image functions of WordPress? When PodPress is installed I can’t manipulate images within a post anymore but when we uninstall it that functionality comes back. WTF?

As soon as this gets fixed I will start posting the podcasts ASAP as they are a lot of fun to do and I am getting some cool support. I won’t bother giving a date but rest assured you will have something cool to feed your ears shortly. Thanks for your patience.

Later.

Mark

Rock and Roll Report Blitz: Switchback

I had a couple of people recommend that I check out South African band Switchback so I contacted John Dirker who is the singer and guitarist for the band to tell me a bit about them and the rock scene in South Africa. John was enthusiastic in explaining to me the pros and cons of playing rock and roll at the southern tip of the African continent and he piqued my curiosity enough to look into doing a South African-themed podcast and/or blog posting to investigate what that country has to offer. The whole region sounds intriguing.

As to Switchback, there is something vaguely familiar with their sound and especially John’s voice. It’s there, at the tip of your brain trying to make a connection with something you have heard before but at the same time it is wholly original and definitely “modern” (you know what I mean, it’s a tough thing to explain. Listen to their tunes and it will become clear).

Track of Time and Better Off are nice and hard hitting while Losing Me reminded me of latter-era Nirvana for some reason, especially the vocals which are eerily similar to those of Kurt Kobain.

All in all this is promising stuff from an area of the world that to me is extremely under-represented in the global rock and roll party. Again I see no reason why Switchback couldn’t easily slot in to your local “alternative rock” radio station playlist but I suppose the fact that people would have to go looking off the beaten path just makes it all too damn hard. Too bad, this is good shit.

Check out their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/switchbackonline

Later.

Mark

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