Monthly Archives: July 2012

For Day 4 of our week with Dave Wakeling of The English Beat, we chatted about some very meaningful moments: getting a phone call from two of his heroes, how he always wanted to use his fame to talk about causes that matter to him, and his gratitude for and devotion to his fans.

Day 1 of our interview can be found here and Day 2 is here. And there’s still time to enter to see the band live on us, right here!

I was thinking about the first time I heard an English Beat song, and realized that it was “Save It for Later” only via Pete Townshend instead of you guys! One thing that stuck with me was that he remarked, “This song has some very interesting chuning...” 

Yes! I was trying to get what turned out to be a traditional old tuning which was called DADGAD. And I was trying to play along with John Martyn records; I like John Martyn and he used this DADGAD tuning, but I didn’t know that. So I tuned it up and ended up with all Ds and As, so I ended up with DADAAD instead of DADGAD.

I was at home in Birmingham, England one Saturday morning when somebody gave me the phone and said, “It’s Pete Townshend.” And I was like, “Yeah, sure it is. Yeah, hey, how ya doin’, Pete?” And it turned out it was! [Laughs.] He says to me, “Look, I’m sitting here with Dave Gilmour and we’re trying to work out the tuning to your song, ‘Save It for Later.’” Well, I nearly fell over! I mean, two of the guitar heroes of your growing up, you know – some of the early Who songs meant the world to me and Dave Gilmour’s guitar on “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” – I mean, really!

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When most people think of Teenbeat Records they conjure up visions of the dapper Mark E. Robinson and his exceptional band Unrest. But anybody that ponders the label for more than just a few fleeting moments should find themselves considering the splendid unit known as Eggs, a prolific and eclectic entity that released one of the best genuine double albums of the ‘90s, Teenbeat 96 Exploder.

Eggs, who hailed from Richmond, VA and then Washington, DC during the nation’s capital’s most fruitful rock era, were essentially singer/guitarist Andrew Beaujon’s band. Sure, guitarist/trombonist/suave towhead Rob Christiansen also became a fixture, but that guy also featured in Teenbeat lounge-pop indie-supergroup Grenadine along with shepherding his own solo project, the very interesting and terribly under-heard Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers.

Drummer John Rickman was around from the beginning through the release of 1992’s Bruiser, Eggs swell first album. Along with Christiansen, bassist Evan Shurak joined shortly after the move to the District and stayed until nearly the end, though when I saw them playing with The Wedding Present at the old 9:30 Club sometime in ‘95, he was replaced on the four-string by Jane Buscher.

The only member of the band to hold it down from beginning to end was Beaujon. And he was the main reason I checked out Eggs in the first place; his previous project Scaley Andrew thrived as one of early Teenbeat’s finest cassette-only wildcards, taking up much time in my stereo’s dual deck at the dawn of the ‘90s, particularly with the C-60 The Soul of Post-Modernism.

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We interrupt our week with Dave Wakeling and The English Beat to …well, give you an opportunity to see the band out on the road on their current tour! How could we not?

Yesterday (7/10) saw the release of the band’s definitive box set, The Complete Beat, and they’ve taken to the road through October, hot on the heels of its release.

We’ve got an opportunity for two of you to catch the band in the city of your choice as they trek across America.

Well how, you’re wondering? Follow me, …post jump:

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Mission of Burma have just released Unsound, their fourth record since reforming in 2002, and it continues the odds defying level of quality that marks them as the indie-rock reunion against which all others will be compared. The secret seems to be an unusually high personal standard combined with a desire to not take it all too seriously. That and excellent songs, of course.

I’m just going to come right out and say it; Mission of Burma’s second incarnation is the more impressive of their existence’s two segments, and as strong as the reunited original lineup of fellow Massachusetts residents Dinosaur Jr. has been (both on record and in the club), it still takes a backseat to Burma’s rekindled achievement.

Obviously many, even partisans of the band’s current activities, will balk at this assessment, mainly because their Mk I discography, while the leanest oeuvre of all the life-changing ’80s American underground proto-indie bands, is very persuasively the most accomplished pound-for-pound; a seven inch, an EP, an LP and a live album, and all of them stone classics.

Plus, in the context of first-wave hardcore’s last-stand and subsequent fallout, Burma’s expansive sound and manner of conduct served as a real guiding light for those looking for an alternative to the restrictions of the Loud Fast Rules. In this regard they shared the stage with Hüsker Dü, but the main difference between the two entities was Burma’s music being significantly more cerebral in execution, a reality that helped to keep the blatant copyists at a minimum and the late ‘80s backlash at bay.

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Japandroids’ Celebration Rock is bookended with the banging sounds of fireworks, awfully appropriate for this 8-song, 35-minute explosion of rock ‘n’ roll.

Youthful in energy, but mature in execution. Brash, but polished. The Vancouver-based guitar and drum duo, Brian King and David Prowse released their sophomore album in early June and have critics and listeners falling in love. The garage rock band’s first effort, 2009’s Post-Nothing, also met critical acclaim and blog buzz, but prior to its release King and Prowse almost called it quits. Thank god they didn’t.

Critics across the board praise Japandroids’ infectious live performance; “energetic” is a gross understatement. Village Voice blogger Nick Murray admits to getting sucked in at a gig: “You’ll have to excuse my paraphrase, because as the chords that begin ‘Younger Us’ rang out, I ditched the transcription, stuffed my notebook into my pants, and pushed my way to the front of the venue. Sorry.” Bad news: y’all just missed Japandroids’ sold-out show at The Rock & Roll Hotel on June 30.

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“When I was younger, life was all about the compact disc. I used to live for alternative rock and plenty of top 40, but that was between my full-length mirror, my hairbrush microphone, and me of course. I would listen to the radio or check my dial-up to find out what fresh releases were going to be at Sam Goody.”

“I’m embarrassed to admit that my first real experience with vinyl was in the early 2000s. At that time, I was extremely concerned with doing the good “indie girl thing,” which included having a decent amount of vinyl in my bedroom. So my boyfriend at the time took me to a great record store in Denver called Twist and Shout.

I had been there before for small rock shows. They would clear all the vinyl out almost entirely to convert it to a venue. This was my first time seeing it all dusty and cluttered just so; and certainly my first time really leafing through records. I immediately fell in love with this leafing. I’m not sure if it was for the size of the art on the packaging, recognizing so many old songs, or just having so many different pieces of time between my fingers.

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