Do you think that you can make the perfect guitar face? Well if so you might want to enter this guitar face competition and prove it to the world.
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OK this is just plain goofy but according to the Slashdot post Using Plants as Speakers, Japanese inventors have found a way for you to turn that leafy fern in the corner into a throbbing woofer pumping out your latest Charms CD at full volume. Weird but definitely cool. Can you imagine what a greenhouse would sound like?
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I came across this on the always wonderful Audities e-mail list and it is, not a trio like I have been featuring a lot of lately but believe it or not a one man band! Mark Sultan is the brains behind BBQ and he will shortly be releasing a CD on the legendary Bomp label. Receiving rave reviews from Brazil to Canada, BBQ has been described as “a raw, soul-shaking style of pre-frat ‘50s/early ‘60s party music” and if Bomp are high on it you know it will be good. Check out his website for some cool MP3s to download and get ready to enjoy the BBQ this summer.
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Don’t forget that the finals for the Underground Garage Battle of the Bands are tomorrow, July 23rd at Irving Plaza in New York City. Tickets are only $12.00 and the doors open at 8:00 PM. The winner goes on to play the big Underground Garage Fest on August 14th with Little Steven himself picking the winner. Should be a very cool night of rock and roll.
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Apple has finally signed three key European indie rock labels with more to come according to The Register. The Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records and V2 are now all on board so you can all get your iTunes fix of the White Stripes, Sex Pistols and Bob Marley. Further details can be found in the Macworld UK exclusive “Indie labels speak.”
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You know, I’m not the overly political type but when I read the article FCC fines ruffle even “Masterpiece Theatre” I just had to shake my head and wonder how long the madness will last. Unbelievable in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech. In the immortal words of Dr. Johnny Fever: Booger!
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Apparently there is a move afoot to draft Mr. Wango Tango himself, Ted Nugent to run for U.S, senator. In this day and age of pro wrestlers, B-grade singers (and their wives) and Hollywood action heroes participating in the U.S. political process, why should having a rocker be a surprise? The thing about Ted Nugent is that he is quite the intelligent and believe it or not eloquent speaker. I can’t stand his politics but at least the guy can competently argue his point of view and he has the faith of his convictions. That should certainly count for something in politics today.
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Tony Blair has lashed out at the permissive society born of the “swinging sixties” as the reason that Britain has seen a rise in violent crimes. “Today, people have had enough of this part of the 1960s consensus. People do not want a return to old prejudices and ugly discrimination. But they do want rules, order and proper behaviour. They want a community where the decent lawabiding majority are in charge.” It was that lunatic John Lennon that started all these problems I tell ‘ya! Bigger than Jesus. Balderdash! I knew too much freedom would corrupt the youth. Back to a rigid class system post haste! That’ll teach ‘em all.
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I have heard The Wildhearts described as a “heavier Cheap Trick” and “the Darkness without the annoying falsetto” but really, what this London based band is all about is rock and roll with some glamour and flash with no apologies made. A great rock and roll band that has been around in various incarnations for a couple of years, The Wildhearts are just plain balls to the wall fun rock and roll. Take that! You can get a great taste of what the band is all about in their multimedia section. Remember they must be played loud.
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I did a quick check on the various radio stations that I have featured over the past year and I am stunned to realize that despite the fact I have mentioned them numerous times I have never actually featured one of my all time favourite stations, WFMU in the Radio Spotlight! WFMU is an incredibly eclectic freeform radio station operating out of Jersey City, New Jersey but broadcasting to the world on the Internet. Where do I start? WFMU is radio the way it should be. Incredibly knowledgeable record freaks playing anything and everything you could possibly imagine and a lot more you couldn’t. Sure there are shows that I listen to regularly like Three Chord Monte, Music to Spazz By and Teenage Wasteland but there is so much cool stuff happening on WFMU that it just makes sense to listen to it all the time. Completely listener supported, WFMU is an increasingly rare station in this day and age of cookie–cutter commercial radio. Listen and be amazed. Then donate some time or money.
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Most North American music aficionados are familiar with the PBS program Austin City Limits but may not be aware that this September 17th to 19th there is an Austin City Limits Music Festival featuring the likes of Elvis Costello, The Pixies, Wilco, Ryan Adams and a bunch more. Sounds like a great reason to go to Texas in September!
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With news that Apple have just released their fourth generation iPod, it is pretty hard to argue against the fact that the tiny MP3 player is rapidly becoming a technological and cultural icon. Of course everybody is wondering what the MP3 player market will be like in a year from now and certainly a lot of people are quietly concerned that the iPod could become the Macintosh of MP3 players (how ironic!). That being said, Newsweek this week features Steve Jobs with an iPod on the cover and has an excellent feature on the impact that the iPod has had in the three years since its introduction. Apple certainly know how to make an impression, the question is can they sustain the momentum?
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You know I do think that it is cool that Live Aid is coming to DVD. At least now I can fast forward past that God-awful ending with Lionel Ritchie and the “performance” by Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. Yeesh! Great cause though.
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I don’t know what it is about trios but a lot of the bands I seem to feature on “Now this is Rock and Roll!” are comprised of just 3 people. Case in point is this week’s band The Subways. “Bluesy, garage rock,” “an unholy merger of The Ramones and the White Stripes” and “the best unsigned band” are just some of the descriptions that I have read about this young UK band. If you are looking for some fast, tuneful rock and roll played with conviction by a bunch of 19 year olds who are just here to rock and roll then check out The Subways immediately. You can download three great MP3s from the Audio section of their website to get you started then, the next time somebody asks you if the subway has passed, you can put your headphones over their ears and tell them that they are just arriving.
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OK I admit it, that was one of the lamer headlines I have come up with! Chock it up to the summer heat. Anyhow, Heart (remember them?) has used the Weed file format that I posted about last week for their new single “Love Hurts”. While it might sound vaguely like some kind of multi-level marketing scheme, this Weed idea is certainly an intriguing one although they better get some support for Macs and Linux users post haste.
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Rising from the ashes of the late, great Filter Records, 11345 Records is according to their website a “completely independent record label/mail order/on-line store. We answer to no one…except you, the music fan.” Now right off the bat this impresses me. With an absolutely fantastic selection of very cool records, 11345 Records is a place to take your time, cruise the bands and pick up some tasty rock and roll. It doesn’t get much better than this.
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Chock up another pretender to the throne as EBay has added downloads to their menu. Might as well join the party but admittedly they are smart and have indicated that this is a six month trial balloon. They will probably pull out when Microsoft joins the party this fall.
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If you are looking for some new material by the excellent Swedish band The Hellacopters then check out some cool MP3 downloads and other assorted goodies from their new album “By the Grace of God” here. Great stuff.
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Fans of the Mod Revival, which gave rise to such bands as a Secret Affair, The Jam, The Lambrettas, and a host of others, should enjoy reading “Mod Revival 1979,” a new book by Anthony Gregory. According to the author, “‘Mod Revival 1979′ is a fly on the wall observation of life as a second generation 80s Midlands Mod and the everyday events of both his club and the scooter scene in general 25 years ago…” Ordering information and a detailed summary of “Mod Revival 1979,” are available at
http://www.mod-revival.com.

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In about 1999/2000 I took an “Introduction to HTML” course at a local community college and one of the requirements was that we had to create a home page on the Internet. I created something called the “Internet Audio Guide” and on the front page I had a picture of what I considered to be a revolutionary audio device called the Kerbango Internet Radio. Although it was well before it’s time, I always thought that the concept of an Internet-enabled stereo was a good one seeing how there is so much great radio is on the ‘Net these days. The Kerbango never made it past the concept stage but it looks like the days of the portable Internet Boom Box may be upon us shortly. PC Mag has an excellent article on what we can expect in Time for the Internet Boom Box by Bill Howard. Once WiFi becomes more robust and mainstream trust me you will be taking these kinds of radios to the beach. Very cool tech indeed.
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I was initially intrigued by Red Planet when I read Jefferey Kopp of Wayback Machine fame talk about them playing live on his show during a monster St. Louis thunderstorm and so I began my search. As great as Red Planet are, they are currently quite difficult to pin down on the ‘Net. It seems that this Bay-area band, who’s sound has been described as “Beatles meets Cars meets Van Halen” has been on hiatus for three years but they are back with a new record on Gearhead Records called “We Know How It Goes” and they do sound great. I have included their listing from Epitonic as a way to get a taste of what they sound like but be careful when clicking on the link to their homepage since it no longer links to the band but to a listing of porn sites (don’t say I didn’t warn you!). This is a band I need to check out further. You might want to as well.
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Yes I realize it’s not Friday but since we don’t publish on Fridays during the summer we’re giving you some Friday Fun early!
If you’ve been tormented by the nagging feeling that your life is incomplete because you’ve never heard Phyllis Diller croon “Satisfaction,” or the late Senator Sam Ervin of Watergate fame recite “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” over a mournful harmonica accompaniment, a site called Miserable Melodies has the relief you’ve been seeking.
Described as “Music recorded with good intentions and bad results,” Miserable Melodies offers samples of musical misadventures recorded by a variety of such unlikely song stylists as John Ashcroft, Burt Reynolds, Fabio, Jack Webb, Telly Savalas, Evel Knievel, and Farrah Fawcett. Also included are William Shatner’s notorious renditions of “Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” as well as offerings from his fellow Star Trek legends, Leonard Nimoy and Brent Spiner. Last, but certainly not least, if you’ve ever wondered what “The Wind Cries Mary” would sound like as a lounge tune, Pat Boone more than ably provides the answer to that burning question. If you have some time to waste, Miserable Melodies is definitely a great place to fritter away an hour or two.

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As I continue my examination of Linux, I keep coming across some interesting articles on marrying the power of the open source software to some pretty cool audio projects. I have talked about recording with Linux before and I have come across another excellent article on recording music with Linux titled Semi-Pro Linux-Based Recording by John Littler. Even if you have no plans on employing Linux in the studio you might want to check out the article for some general recording hints and tips.
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The always enjoyable Alexis Petridis of The Guardian ponders this very question in 24 Hour Party People. While a bit too soon to declare “Dig!”, “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster” and “Mayor of Sunset Strip” a renaissance, he does make the point that films like “Dig!” are not only great but are less likely to be made in this day and age of record company PR people looking to the art form as merely another promotional puff piece. The list of the great unreleased and rarely seen rock documentaries at the end of the article is worth the read alone.
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Sad news to report as Arthur Kane of the legendary New York Dolls who are in the midst of a reunion has passed away at age 55 due to complications from leukemia.
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