Rock Book Review - Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards by Al Kooper

I love rock books. I’m a sucker for biographies, auto-biographies, band histories, rock history and those humongous coffee table books on bands like the Stones and Beatles which you can find for under 20 bucks at your local Barnes and Noble or Chapters on a regular basis. I recently had the chance to read the Al Kooper biography Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards and, not only was it a great read but it made me laugh out loud on numerous occasions, always a positive sign in my eyes.

Read more

Hottest Women of Metal (according to Revolver)

(Press Release) Ever wonder who the hottest girls in metal are? Well Revolver magazine has the answer in their June issue. The periodical picked TV tattooist Kat Von D, who just hooked up with Motley Crue¹s Nikki Sixx, Bleeding Through’s Maria Peterson, Sonic Syndicate’s Karin Axelsson, Winds of Plague’s Kristen Randall and Light This City’s Laura Nichol. You can see pictures of all the ladies in the magazine, which goes on sale on Tuesday.

Book Review: Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time

“The point of a music revolution is not to replace today’s pop stars with a new slate; it is to kick out the jams! Riot in the streets! Do it now! Etc. It’s all about direct engagement, and the result of all that activity should be a better time for all, a party that will keep everyone coming back to do it some more. This is what rock & roll at its best can provide – leading to the idea that perhaps rock & roll itself should be seen not as a genre, not as a mere noun or even a verb, but also as a process.”

Greg Shaw

Prophetic words from a man that embodied rock and roll, with all of its contradictions and complexities, pure and simple. I have actually quoted these words on this very blog before and it always gives me solace to read them in this day and age of niches and genres and sub-genres. That it was uttered by Greg Shaw, a poster boy for independent rock and roll if there ever was one makes it that much more poignant.

Read more

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.

Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine Seeking New Bands For 1st Issue CD Sampler

(Press Release) In December, 2007, “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine” will make its newsstand debut! As part of our launch, we’re seeking to profile some of the hottest up and coming, as well as established, millennium rock/metal bands! To that end, we are now seeking submissions for our CD Sampler, which should be emailed to sexdrugsandrocknrollmagazine@yahoo.com in MP3 format, along with a myspace link, and a contact name and number. Each participating band will receive a brief (150-200) word write-up (additionally including contact info, websites, etc.), and color photo of the band in the Magazine itself, as well as promotional copies of the issue. The participating bands’ names will also be included in any press release concerning the publication of our inaugural issue. Each slot costs $100.00 U.S.

Our debut issue will feature the beautiful and talented SHERI MOON ZOMBIE on the cover. Sheri’s star has been on the rise since appearing as a lead character in husband Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects.” Currently, Sheri is starring in her hubby’s remake of “Halloween”—as Michael Myers’ mother Deborah—which earned more than $30,000,000 during its opening weekend. Additionally, Sheri owns and operates the Total Skull clothing line, which will be highlighted in her magazine spread. Additionally, it features interviews with Motley Crue founder/songwriter/bassist Nikki Sixx discussing his new biography “The Heroin Diaries,” Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and his producer, Scott Humphrey, discussing their writing and recording process, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, the Guru of Ganja Ed Rosenthal, are other key articles in the premiere issue of “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine.”

More About Us:

“Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine” is as provocative in subject matter as our title might suggest. A hybrid in the spirit of “Rolling Stone,” “High Times” and “Maxim” magazines, the publication offers cutting-edge coverage and commentary of and on everything and anything colorful—be it mainstream or indie—popping off in the entertainment, sex and counter cultures! Published quarterly to three demographics simultaneously, readers can flip from what’s hottest in the bedroom to the radio or movie screen, hearing it all first-hand from their favorite stars! “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll” is more than just a magazine…it’s a lifestyle!” www.myspace.com/sexdrugsandrocknrollmagazine

Introducing Roczine, a Brand New Magazine Celebrating Unsigned and Indie Rock and Roll

I’m pretty excited to be involved with a brand new rock magazine that I think you should check out.

Roczine is a new underground rock mag covering the amazing variety of unsigned and indie bands plying their craft out there and as you can tell, that matches up perfectly with the mission of The Rock and Roll Report so I think we will be a natural fit.

Edited by the non-stop powerhouse that is Raven, Let me re-print from their page what Roczine is all about and you will see why I am so excited:

Roczine is a new underground magazine dedicated to increasing awareness of local and national signed and unsigned bands. Roczine is quartlerly, and will interview/rate from 8 to 10 bands in each issue. One band will be chosen per issue to grace the cover, our feature band. CONGRATULATIONS TO IN THIS MOMENT FOR BECOMING OUR FIRST FEATURED BAND AND WITHIN REASON FOR THE UPCOMING FALL EDITION!!

Roczine has been designed not only to help fans learn more about their favorite artists, we also have help for the new band, and aspiring artists. Which promoters you should work with, how to get recorded, how to get signed, and booked are all in the first issue.

Be sure to ask the Editor any questions you may have. They can be related to music, dating, sex, sandwiches, whatever you want. All questions will be answered in the mag.

Currently Roczine will be available in the following locations with many more to come so definitely seek it out:

Strasse House, Covington, KY

Delta House In Covington, KY

CBR’S In Columbus, OH

Billiard Hutch Dixie Highway in Florence, KY

Tattoo’s in Nashville TN

Amoeba Records in CA (all locations)

If you can’t find it on your local newsstands ask them to order it or contact the mag at roczine@yahoo.com and and subscribe.

The Rock and Roll Report will be a regular feature of Rockzine and will contribute to furthering the rock and roll cause by highlighting bands, record labels, podcasts and radio shows that believe in the power of rock and roll. It will be a lot of fun to be included in a magazine where everybody involved is passionate about rock and wants to put together the best damn music mag available today. Check it out and let me know what you think. You can get more info at their MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/roczine.

Later.

Mark

WITHIN REASON will be the Feature Band
October 2007.

Rock and Roll Report Book Review: Jimmy Page – Magus, Musician, Man by George Case (Hal-Leonard Books)

Mystique. My copy of the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary defines it as “an atmosphere of mystery and veneration attending some activity or person. Any skill mystifying to the layman.” This is certainly an appropriate word to describe Jimmy Page, the mercurial magician behind Led Zeppelin and a man whose mystique has often overshadowed the person who is after all just a man.

It is somewhat appropriate that I received Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography by George Case amidst the current rumours (again!) of a Led Zeppelin reunion, rumours flatly denied by Robert Plant himself. Love them or loath them, you cannot deny Led Zeppelin their due as one of the biggest rock and roll bands on the planet and at the center of the maelstrom there lived one James Patrick Page. Case does a good job of covering Page’s life, especially before and after Zeppelin since he was rarely in the limelight before he hit the big time and he seemed to shun it after the demise of Zeppelin upon the death of John Bonham.

Any rock and roll history buff will know the general outline of Page’s life. From his incredible success as a studio sideman in the mid-sixties playing on everything from the biggest hits of the Kinks, the Who and Them to his relationship with Jackie Deshannon and then his joining the Yardbirds and combining with Jeff Beck for an incredible but brief twin guitar sonic attack, Case adds some details and clarification to Page’s otherwise little publicized life in “swinging London.” It was his tenure in the Yardbirds, as brief as it was, that to me is where things get interesting. Page began the process of molding the Yardbirds, even with Beck still in the fold, into this incredible psychedelic raving tour de force that he was never able to fully realize due to the implosion of that band but he managed to take everything he learned from that experience and transfer it to the very young, very green (in Bonham and Plant) Led Zeppelin.

The whole concept of Led Zeppelin was always to integrate the light and the dark, the soft and the heavy into a mythical musical partnership that would go beyond the incessant psychedelic noodling of bands like Cream and Iron Butterfly. Page had as much of an ear for Joan Baez as for Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon and he wanted the band to integrate both influences equally. Today when we think of Zeppelin, we tend to think immediately of Black Dog, Whole Lot of Love or Stairway to Heaven, conveniently forgetting the regal beauty of songs like Thank You, Tangerine, Your Time is Going to Come or Babe I’m Going to Leave You, songs that are as important to the Zeppelin canon as the heavier, classic rock friendly songs we hear on the radio today. Unfortunately for Page, despite his brilliant production, exquisite musicianship and revolutionary business practices (courtesy of uber-manager Peter Grant) Led Zeppelin were always somewhat tarnished by their excessive reputation, a reputation that seemed to obscure what the band were capable of doing in the studio and on stage and which only now they are getting a grudging respect for.

While Case covers both the sublime and the excessive, the story certainly could have benefited from the participation of Page, not so much to refute some of the infamous urban legends as to expand on the ideas and ideals behind the music and the symbolism often intertwined throughout the band and their music. While Case does an admirable job with an exhaustive amount of research and interviews of those around Page, despite his best intentions he was not able to convince Page to participate.

One of the biggest questions for me was always around the issue of plagiarism, a controversy that has dogged Page and the band for years. While Page has always come clean on giving credit where credit is due, although somewhat grudgingly, he essentially pins the blame on Robert Plant in the end. While he maintains that the music may have been influenced by some of the Blues greats of the past, he insists that it was Robert Plant who was suppose to alter the lyrics of the songs in question somewhat more than he did. “Robert may have wanted to go for the original blues lyrics, but everything else was a totally different kettle of fish.” While I wouldn’t say outright that Page is a thief as all rock and roll borrows from its past, I would hesitate to call him a naïve musician innocent of all charges.

Perhaps save for Jim Morrison, nobody else has managed to remain such a rock and roll enigma and Morrison only pulled it off because he managed to die before he got old. I mean we have all heard the rumours of a wasted Page being led from limo to stage back to limo to the Starship and we all have seen the pictures of him on stage with those huge aviator glasses, silk scarf, jack boots and Nazi SS cap but we never really knew that much about the guy. George Case certainly brings an interesting and balanced portrait of Page and I am definitely able to appraise him in a more informed light now than before but the air of mystery that Page has worked so hard to cultivate still remains. Sure I might know the names of his wives and kids and now I have a bit more details about Boleskin House and what happened to his post-Zeppelin band The Firm but at the end of the day, James Patrick Page still remains somewhat of a mystery to me and frankly, in this day and age where we can seem to Google out every mundane lifestyle detail of the rich and famous, I kind of like it that way.

Even if you are not a fan of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography is well worth the effort to read because there is no doubt that Jimmy Page was the engine behind an incredible rock and roll machine and it just might get you to dust off that old copy of Led Zeppelin III and listen to it again in a new light. And somehow I think that would make Mr. Page crack his crooked smile just a little bit for he is still a believer that what he created was perhaps the finest rock and roll band to ever grace the planet.

Later.

Mark

Texas Psych Blog

Few people realize that arguably the first psychedelic record was not “Revolver” by The Beatles but “Roller Coaster” by Texas band the 13th Floor Elevators. Well there is a whole lot more Texas psych to check out over at the Texas Psych blog. Continuously updated, the Texas Psych blog is “dedicated to the great Texas Sixties Music and more… Fans of the 13th Floor Elevators, Roky Erickson, Golden Dawn, Red Krayola and garage / psych in general will want to check in regularly.”

Check it out. It’s all pretty groovy man!

Later.

Recording the Beatles

Not too long ago I reviewed “Grateful Dead Gear” by Blair Jackson. In that review I cheerfully admitted to being a gearhead and it is that fascination that finds me frothing at the mouth to get my hands on Recording the Beatles. Every mixer, outboard effect, microphone, tape machine and speaker are discussed in exquisite detail like no other book before it. While pricy, it looks to be heaven for all you Beatles obsessives out there as well as for gearheads like me. Very impressive. Hopefully I will be able to get a review copy to give you my thoughts. Amazing. When you think they have been covered completely somebody comes up with yet another gem of a Beatles book.

Later.

Book Review: “Grateful Dead Gear” by Blair Jackson (Backbeat Books)

I have always been a “gearhead.” In fact, I’m almost as interested in the technology of rock and roll as its sound. I distinctly remember arguing with a guitarist buddy of mine in a band long ago because when I was waxing nostalgic about some cool piece of recording equipment he just looked at me and said “I’m a musician, not a technician” which pretty much meant that all those cool knobs and flashing lights on the soundboard held no interest for him whatsoever.

Now, this guitarist buddy of mine was a fan of the Grateful Dead so I am not sure how much he would enjoy “Grateful Dead Gear” by Blair Jackson but my guess is not much. To say that this book is detailed is to say that the Middle East is “complicated” as there is more than enough info in the 287 pages to keep any Deadhead happy for weeks.

Covering the history of the band from their days as the Warlocks to 1995 when Jerry Garcia passed away, “Grateful Dead Gear” details every guitar, amp, drum set, keyboard, PA system, outboard effect and more that the band employed both live and in the studio. It also looks at the technology and techniques that the Dead used to record their albums as well as a helpful source of albums (including officially released albums, the “Dicks Picks” series and bootlegs) to get an idea of what they sounded like at the time. Do you have to be a Deadhead to like this book? Well I don’t think you have to be a Deadhead per se but at least being a gearhead and casual fan would make the whole thing more enjoyable. If not then the detail may overwhelm anybody but the adventurous music fan. That being said, I always like to mention whenever the subject matter is the Grateful Dead that if you are one of those people whose knowledge of the band is framed by the stereotypical stoned Deadhead dancing to a 25 minute version of “Turn On Your Lovelight” you must give them a chance. The Dead have released such a wide variety of music that there is bound to be something in their canon that will be of interest to most rock and roll fans. I’m not saying that you will become an instant fan, but you will certainly get to appreciate a band that was a unique part of rock and roll history. They pumped out a lot of good stuff. Have a listen and find out for yourself.

Later.

Next Page »