The story of most original ‘60s garage bands is that of languishing in at least relative obscurity during their original existence. It is not until music nerds, interested in the esoteric genre that is garage rock, collect, compile, and attempt to propagate these bands’ work from decades past that any attention is paid. Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets comp, the re-birth of the Sloths (through the auspices of Burger Records), and the now global consciousness of Death from Detroit are a few glorious notable instances of this bittersweet phenomenon.
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Girls With Guitars LP Review
Record stores have a display wall for geeks like me. That’s where they put the super rare, used records and the limited edition 180 gram reissues. The last time I was at Shake It! Records scrounging for The Pretenders’ first album I looked up and saw the Girls with Guitars comp. The price was steep and I was on a mission and a budget. I went home with a used Nick Lowe album and despite what The Bible says I coveted. So when I got a twenty five dollar gift card from my boss for my birthday, I knew where I was headed and what I wanted. I told myself…
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Getting to Know The Pretenders
One of the great things about being in a band is sitting around listening to records together. That’s what got me on this Pretenders kick in the first place. I walked out of the basement and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Jenny and Sara were already on the futon, Roxie was stationed in one of the day-glow 70’s kitchen chairs by the end table and Todd was digging into his current listening bin of vinyl. He pulled out a record and proudly proclaimed, “Here’s where I’ve been stealing those guitar hooks from.” He held up a copy of Pretenders II. Growing up in the Midwest during the eighties, I…
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7 Best Lines of Hole’s Live Through This
There is a lot surrounding Hole‘s second album, Live Through This that came out in 1994. A lot of history, a lot of controversy and so many great lines. It came out a week after Kurt Cobain died and just a few months before bassist, Kristen Pfaff’s death in June. While still a strong rock album, it was less abrasive than Hole’s first album Pretty on the Inside released in 1991. It received more critical claim and really launched Hole into rockstar status. A long time ago I read Poppy Z. Brite’s book, Courtney Love: The Real Story which gave some insight into Love’s life from childhood up to the writing and…
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Review of Friends’ album Manifest!
I recently wrote a review of my new favorite band, Friends, debut album! It was posted on CityBeat‘s blog and you can check it out here!
