Mark Lanegan Gun Club Fan; Friend and Collaborator with Jeffrey Lee Pierce “I would talk about Jeffrey 24 hours a day,” Mark Lanegan confessed to me during a phone conversation some twenty-odd years ago. “And I still do.” Such is but one example of the colossal impact Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club made,… Continue reading The Gun Club, Part 4 (Mark Lanegan Interview)
Tag: California
The Gun Club, Part 3 (Patricia Morrison Interview)
Patricia Morrison Gun Club Bass Guitarist, June 1982 – December 1984 Though she only recorded their third studio album, The Las Vegas Story, with the band, Patricia Morrison will forever be associated with The Gun Club, as much if not more for the female yang and gothic visual impact she brought to the band as… Continue reading The Gun Club, Part 3 (Patricia Morrison Interview)
All I Ever Wanted
All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ’n’ Roll Memoir By Kathy Valentine [University of Texas Press] The Go-Go’s were the dirtiest dirty little secret of every teenage punk/hardcore boy of the 1980s. If you were a punk, it was a shameful thing to own Beauty and the Beat. But we all had it, stashed somewhere… Continue reading All I Ever Wanted
The Gun Club, Part 2 (Ward Dotson Interview)
Ward Dotson Gun Club Guitarist, November 1980 – December 1982 Prior to joining The Gun Club, Dotson was in the hardcore band Der Stab, whose demos occasionally turn up on punk compilations. After two years of madness in Gun Club, for whom he supplied that ruthless, blistering guitar sound of the first two albums, he… Continue reading The Gun Club, Part 2 (Ward Dotson Interview)
The Gun Club, Part 1 (Introduction)
Up Jumped the Devil: The Gun Club’s Fire Smolders On Their sound struck like a whip’s tail smacking flesh, leaving stinging welts and stripes of blood. It was the sound of violent upheaval on both a grand and inner scale. The sound of lost American spirits, long believed dead and irrelevant, rising in an unforeseen… Continue reading The Gun Club, Part 1 (Introduction)
Deftones – Ohms
Chino Moreno, vocalist of Deftones, recently spoke out of both sides of his mouth in an interview about how their new, ninth album, Ohms, would satisfy their fans’ appetite for the heavy Deftones of the past, while also giving himself an out at the same time. He’s on record saying, “’Heavy’ is kind of subjective,… Continue reading Deftones – Ohms
ZAPPA
In an attempt to deflect his interests away from music toward science, chemical beakers were his toys and gas masks were common attire. In a family devoid of musical inclination, Frank Zappa learned how to make gunpowder at six before becoming fascinated by explosions at a later age. He admits to being inspired by Ernie… Continue reading ZAPPA
The Gun Club’s Miami Gets Its Due
The best rock ‘n’ roll album ever made, The Gun Club’s second album Miami, is finally being properly re-released in expanded form on Dec. 4 via Blixa Sounds. The remastered 1982 album, produced by Chris Stein of Blondie (a favorite band of the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce), will be augmented with a second vinyl LP… Continue reading The Gun Club’s Miami Gets Its Due
Neil Young’s Archives II Box Out Nov. 20
Neil Young obviously has a staggering number of recordings stashed away going back more than half a century. He’s got so much that even though there’ve been numerous portions released over the past 15 years as part of his multi-pronged Archives project, there’s still far more in the pipeline, he’s always behind schedule and the… Continue reading Neil Young’s Archives II Box Out Nov. 20
X – Alphabetland
Sometimes it’s wise to let an album sit for a bit after first hearing it, picking it back up a while later to see if it still warrants the praise slobbered upon it during your initial excitement. This practice helps ensure a more clearheaded assessment of the album’s strengths and weaknesses, unclouded by the knee-jerk… Continue reading X – Alphabetland
Berlin – Pleasure Victim
The most irritating thing about Pride Month every summer is the people terrified of being mistaken for boring heterosexuals. They get all compulsive about making some bold social media statement without realizing they’re echoing a Margaret Cho joke from way back when she was funny: “Turns out I’m just a slut – where’s my parade?”… Continue reading Berlin – Pleasure Victim
Osees – Protean Threat
John Dwyer, extraordinaire-extraordinaire, delivers the first real album from the latest psych-O incarnate: Osees (drop the “H” you dust sucker!) What was previously long and lysergic-dipped jazz ooze (2019’s Face Stabber) is now quick pelts of ice-punk burst. As in the proverbial “WE,” we call it: Protean Threat. WE just got word back from the Nationale Garde,… Continue reading Osees – Protean Threat
The Marshmallow Ghosts Count Down to The Witching Hour
For 12 years, Savannah-based Ryan Graveface’s spookcentric project The Marshmallow Ghosts has released annual Halloween-themed records that are as distinctive in packaging as they in concept. This year’s offering, The Witching Hour, is presented as a radio show featuring a mix of call-in ghost stories interspersed with songs by The Marshmallow Ghosts, San Francisco’s swirly… Continue reading The Marshmallow Ghosts Count Down to The Witching Hour
The Doors’ Morrison Hotel Adds Another Level
Originally released in February 1970, Morrison Hotel is unquestionably one of The Doors top albums, holding up as a powerful, gritty and even tender rock ‘n’ roll classic to this day. Thirteen years ago, along with the rest of the band’s studio albums, it was reissued in a single-CD expanded edition, with “40th Anniversary” remixes… Continue reading The Doors’ Morrison Hotel Adds Another Level
L.A. Witch
Fire Spirits L.A. Witch Reappear, Packing Heat For many bands that find success with their debut album, the notorious “sophomore slump” is a real worry. For the members of garage/psych rock trio L.A. Witch – singer/guitarist Sade Sanchez, bassist Irita Pai, and drummer Ellie English – making their second full-length album seemed like an especially… Continue reading L.A. Witch
Death Valley Girls Dive Into the Cosmic
It seems like just yesterday we were just watching Iggy scarf down that burger in a Warhol homage, but Death Valley Girls already back with a fresh missive, and it represents a mind-glowing, soul-blowing expansion into the transcendental. “There is a lot to be really angry about in the world,” acknowledges vocalist/guitarist/organist Bonnie Bloomgarden, “but… Continue reading Death Valley Girls Dive Into the Cosmic
Burger Records Buried Under Sexual Misconduct Allegations
The sudden collapse of Burger Records dumped yet another dismal steaming layer onto the ever-growing turd pile that is 2020. That it had nothing to do with COVID-19 or the ensuing and ongoing government-imposed economic shutdowns makes it even tougher to take. No, Fullerton, California-based Burger and several of the bands associated with the label… Continue reading Burger Records Buried Under Sexual Misconduct Allegations
L.A. Witch Gets Lit
Well hallelujah, baby! After holing themselves up to write and record new material early this year, L.A. Witch have done finished work on their second full-length album. A volatile concoction of garage rock, punk, blues, country and psychedelia, Play With Fire will scorch the earth August 14, when Suicide Squeeze releases it on vinyl, CD,… Continue reading L.A. Witch Gets Lit
Joe Satriani
The Spice of Life: Gettin’ Shifty with Joe Satriani “People need music in their lives,” says legendary rock guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, calling from his home in San Francisco. “We put on music when we’re happy, when we’re sad, when we need it to accompany us and help us get through life. So all these… Continue reading Joe Satriani
Game Theory – Across the Barrier of Sound
Game Theory’s run of hooky, heady and slightly off-kilter power pop extended from 1982-90, drawing the curtain with something that qualified as neither a bang nor a whimper. The quartet, which honed its attack using guitars and keyboards in equal measure, had always been a revolving cast of players centered on curly-haired savant Scott Miller.… Continue reading Game Theory – Across the Barrier of Sound
Green Day – Father of All Motherfuckers
Green Day’s latest can easily be labeled as mediocre to confusing. On one hand it’s slightly refreshing, because it’s kind of a departure away from their super-radio-friendly pop of the last ten years or so. It has some semblances of rock ‘n’ roll (and some crumbs of punk rock). On the other hand, it’s just… Continue reading Green Day – Father of All Motherfuckers
Put Your Flaming Lips in my Deap Vally
Blistering California rock ‘n’ roll duo Deap Vally (Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards) have trickled out a couple of new songs since 2016’s Nick Zinner-produced LP Femejism, but their next album is a collaboration with Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd of Oklahoma psych-rockers The Flaming Lips under the banner Deap Lips. Their self-titled album is… Continue reading Put Your Flaming Lips in my Deap Vally
Everything Has Changed for Best Coast
Always Tomorrow, Best Coast’s fourth album and first since 2015’s California Nights, is described by vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Bethany Cosentino as “the story of a second chance.” Says Cosentino, “After we finished the album cycle for California Nights, something terrifying happened to me. I felt creatively paralyzed. I couldn’t write music. There was so much… Continue reading Everything Has Changed for Best Coast
Isobel Campbell
Count the Flowers: There Is No Other Isobel Campbell Singer/cellist/composer Isobel Campbell first found fame when she was 19 years old, as a member of the beloved Scottish indie group Belle and Sebastian, but it’s the work she’s done since leaving that band in 2002 – four solo albums (sometimes under the name Gentle Waves),… Continue reading Isobel Campbell
Cherie Currie & Brie Darling
Motivating Factors: Female Rock Trailblazers Cherie Currie and Brie Darling Team Up Not too many musicians earn iconic status in their own right, but then also get to create music with one of the legends who inspired them – but that’s exactly what’s happened with Cherie Currie. She became famous while still a teenager in… Continue reading Cherie Currie & Brie Darling
The Growlers – Natural Affair
Dana Point’s merry pranksters release a Furthur bus of Growlers clichés driving on an unpaved road of monotony toward a cliff of career suicide. “And monotony is a slow killer,” golden-age Brooks Nielsen once wrote. After listening to Natural Affair, I would say monotony is a venomous bitch that kills rapid. This album sounds like… Continue reading The Growlers – Natural Affair
Tycho
Interstellar Overdrive: Tycho Takes to the Sky – and Forecasts the Weather November 11, 1572: A bright blast explodes in the evening sky over Denmark, illuminating the autumn darkness and catching the attention of alchemist and astronomer Tycho Brahe. Ten years into his ambitious quest to map the celestial firmament with only a compass, a… Continue reading Tycho
Beck – Hyperspace
Beck breaks back into the scene with Hyperspace, an album that you very much want to like, but alas, your gut speaks the truth. Taking Beck’s many talents into account, this is not a good release. I literally will never hear these songs again. Not out of protest or spite, mind you, but because this… Continue reading Beck – Hyperspace