The legendary rock photographer, Bob Gruen, has a new book out now via the folks at Abrams Books. After having quite a few wonderful books published of his work over the years, this is, surprisingly, the first time anyone has published a career covering compendium. And Gruen has about 40 years of rock ‘n’ roll road behind him at this point.
I’ve seen a copy of this, and its absolutely beautiful…put together with the usual care for detail that Abrams specializes in, and I highly recommend checking it out.
What initially seemed to be a few recently announced casual reunion shows has apparently turned into a full blown reunion for keepers of the rock ‘n’ roll flame, D-Generation.
Along with the announcement of shows comes the news that the band will be releasing new material in 2012. The band have confirmed shows for early September in Spain and London leading up to a NYC headline show at Irving Plaza and then San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, Austin and possibly more.
The band will be playing material from their three full-length albums D-Generation (1994), No Lunch (1996) and Through The Darkness (1999), and plan to write new material, post shows, for a release in 2012.
September 6 will see the physical release of Ghosts Outside (already available digitally) – a dub reworking of Steve Mason’s (ex-Beta Band) 2010 album Boys Outside. The album was recorded earlier this year in Livingston Studios in partnership with UK reggae legend Dennis Bovell.
The album is on sale digitally now and will be available on CD and LP from Domino Records from September 6.
Prolific writer, blogger, Mets fan, and Bruce Springsteen fan extraordinaire, Caryn Rose, has her debut novel out now. Entitled B-Sides & Broken Hearts, she’ll be launching the book with an event in Brooklyn at the Soft Spot on August 25. For all of the info, visit the event Facebook page, and get out there & support your local writers!
Here’s a short video Caryn put together that sums things up quite nicely:
Brian Olive, who is still in the lead for my favorite album of the year, rocked the Bell House in Brooklyn last night. The turnout could have been better, but Brian and the band carried on as if they were playing to a packed house. The good news is that an additional show has been added in Manhattan.
After tonight’s show at the North Star Bar in Philly, they’ll be headed back to New York, and will play the Living Room tomorrow night on the Lower East Side at 9:00PM. Do yourself a favor and go check them out.
Anthology Film Archives will be featuring screenings of Larry Wessel’s four hour documentary on cult figure/artist/musician, Boyd Rice, ICONOCLAST: Boyd Rice. Screenings at the East Village institution are August 20-21 at 7:00PM each night, and tickets are available here.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Mr. Rice’s oeuvre, allow us to give you some background: Boyd Rice first came to prominence in the 1970s as one of the founders of the genre known as Industrial Music. Since then, Rice has enjoyed a career spanning four decades, encompassing the worlds of pop culture, music, art, and film. He has been dubbed ‘The Godfather of Noise Music’, authored several books, exhibited his art in a number of one-man gallery shows, and even lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, despite having been a high-school dropout. Bands and artists Rice has been connected to include NON, Z’Ev, Death In June, Frank Tovey, and quite a few others.
“My life, says Boyd Rice, “is a testament to the idea that you can achieve whatever the hell you want if you possess a modicum of creativity, and a certain amount of naiveté concerning what is and isn’t possible in this world. I’ve had one-man shows of my paintings in New York, but I’m not a painter. I’ve authored several books, but I’m not a writer. I’ve made a living as a recording artist for the last 30 years, but I can’t read a note of music or play any instrument. I’ve somehow managed to make a career out of doing a great number of things I’m in no way qualified to do.”
Our pals over at Acute Records are releasing their (surprisingly) first ever vinyl release – Drums Over London by obscuro-70’s UK punk band, The Disco Zombies. Since we always have time for anything Acute-related I wanted to pass the news on to you.
The Disco Zombies existed from 1977 to 1980 or so (like all good punk bands!). They played extremely catchy and witty and occasionally topical pop songs, whether during their earlier energetic punk phase or later artier drum machine phase. The LP compiles their 3 rare and collectible 7″ singles, including the classic “Drums Over London”, as well as 7 additional never before released songs taken from acetates to singles that almost were.
Here’s the second installment in the Goldmine magazine video series about record libraries & collections. Yesterday we put up “Whats In the Archive?” – about the Archive of Contemporary Music.
Today’s featured library belongs to the world famous WFMU in Jersey City, NJ.
This was originally published on Stupefaction in 2010.
Back in 2010, Goldmine magazine started a video series exploring various record archives & collections. Unfortunately, they only managed to post two stories – one on the Archive of Contemporary Music in Tribeca in downtown Manhattan, and one on the record library at WFMU in Jersey City, NJ.
If you’ve ever been curious about either place this will give you the scoop you’ve been looking for. Here’s the the video on the Archive – WFMU will be up next.
Happy birthday to MTV. For better or worse the television channel was born on this date 30 years ago. At the time, I was anticipating the beginning of the tenth grade, and my family didn’t have cable TV yet – imagine that! We weren’t alone. Where were you?
Here is a video playlist of their first hour of broadcast, commercials and all:
Last night was an interesting one for anyone into the nostalgia trip for the mid-70’s to mid-80’s period of punk/new wave/post punk music and art. At the New Museum, there was the late-reported Gray two-set show. And at the Kasher Gallery was the long awaited opening for two exhibits: The Laura Levine: Musicians photography show, and the Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post Punk Graphics 1976-1982 collection. As planned I attended the shindig at the Kasher Gallery, and was glad I made it.
The gallery, a beautiful space thats just the right size, would make any exhibit look good…not that these two needed any help. More after the break.
Pretty much responsible for inventing the album cover as we know it, Steinweiss was a fantastic artist of endless creativity. Visit a wonderful tribute to him & his artwork here.
In the better late than never department, August 5-7 will see the Escape To New York Festival take place in the Hamptons on Long Island curated by Fred Fellowes of The UK’s Secret Garden Parties.
The line-up includes Patti Smith, Of Montreal, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Best Coast, Mates of State, Chairlift, The Psychedelic Furs, White Rabbits, Au Revoir Simmone, Reptar, Lissy Trullie, Tiger Love, The Postelles, The Submarines, Savoir Adore, The Static Jacks, Graffiti 6, as well as a bunch of art installations.
Strange times we live in indeed. It could be my skewed perspective, but it seems like most of what’s really interesting in music these days has already happened in the distant and not so distant past. Just ask Simon Reynolds.
And in true entrepreneurial fashion, certain people are taking advantage of this fact, and I don’t mean that in a negative sense. Ex-Cro-Mag frontman, John Joseph, and NYC concert promoter, Jake Szufnarowski, are two such folks.
As previously reported, Norton Records will be celebrating their 25th anniversary over the next few months with tons of activity and plans in store.
Here is the line up for their four day spectacular extravaganza all star blow out in November…get your tickets while they’re available – see links below. This promises to be one heck of a weekend…
The legendary rock photographer, Bob Gruen, has a new book out now via the folks at Abrams Books. After having quite a few wonderful books published of his work over the years, this is, surprisingly, the first time anyone has published a career covering compendium. And Gruen has about 40 years of rock ‘n’ roll road behind him at this point.
