Why couldn’t it have been his scumbag John Edwards-wanna-be brother instead?

R.I.P. Doug.

More rock greatness down the tubes.

Maybe you did, but I didn’t…

I didn’t much love Van Halen growing up.  I wasn’t into that kind of music. I did have a poster of David Lee Roth on my closet but he was facing the door.  Firstly because my heartthrob of the moment was on the other side, and secondly because Diamond Dave was in ass-less chaps and I was 15.  Funny because I don’t remember the heartthrob of the moment, but the ass-less chaps are seared into my brain.

Looking back I appreciate what a great entertainer he was.  The powerful voice, the cheetah scream, the risque lyrics. He could tear up a stage with feats of athleticism that should have gotten him an olympic medal, all that and the stage presence and charisma of a pop metal tent revival preacher.

So today I was surfing around looking for tabs for Magic Man, because I’m sick of singing it a capella and scaring the family.  I vainly hoped someone had adapted it for the acoustic guitar, but c’mon, how could you play Magic Man without the distortion and chugging power chords?

“You got your Joni Mitchell in my Ann and Nancy!”

“You got your Ann and Nancy in my Joni Mitchell!”

They kind of negate one another.

So no luck there, but I did stumble upon this gem:

Who knew he flatpick a pretty mean blues guitar? I guess it goes along with his kinesthetic genius. I imagine he got together with the Van Halens because he really wanted to do backflips off a stack of speakers and knew his Gibson would get in the way. I bet he could have done it though.

He probably would make a good kindergarten teacher too.

Except for all the pot and cocaine.

So our country is going to hell in a handbasket. It was just a matter of time anyway. Put all that mess aside and enjoy some Chic…

NOT-SO-FRIVOLOUS UPDATE:

Unrelated music news, the last of the Jimi Hendrix Experience has gone to join his bandmates. RIP Mitch Mitchell.

Boy, it’s non-stop excitement here in southern California’s bastion of wealth and excess. It seems that Bon Jovi rocker Richie Sambora cannot control his appetite for grandma’s cough (bad) medicine or underage girls as he was arrested for drunken driving last night in Laguna Beach (the “real” Orange County).

Ha! Does this guy look like the cool, rockin’ 80’s guitarist we remember so fondly or just some goofball who got too much sun on the beach?

A gas-guzzling, air-polluting Hummer??? Wait a second! Aren’t Richie and the rest of the Bon Jovi crew some of Algore’s Concert-for-Climate-Change, Earth-love buddies? This can’t be accurate can it? I knew that he was a cowboy on the steel horse he rides, but the song never mentioned his world-class SUV.

Uh oh.. careful there Richie. You’ll end up in the slammer giving love a bad name. Perhaps they were just a couple of little runaways?

I’ll admit to liking a couple of Beatles songs but the idea that we should make them our deep space musical ambassadors to possibly hostile alien life forms just strikes me as needlessly initiating negotiations from a position of weakness:

The Beatles are about to become radio stars in a whole new way.NASA on Monday will broadcast the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe” across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.

[...]

“Send my love to the aliens,” Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian. “All the best, Paul.”

Yes. By all means let’s send the aliens our love and hope that they speak the intergalactic language of “hippie”.

All you need is love.

[...]

Love, love me do?

[...]

I want to hold your hand.

Do you think I traveled from Arturos 9 for heavy petting in the back of my dad’s Galaxie 500? Grab your primitive feet handles and prepare to initiate “Operation: Infinite Uranus” gangbang protocols in 3…..2…….1……

Help!

You’re not from around here, are you? 

Okay, it may not be as evil as Hollywood, but it’s neck-and-neck between those two. The soon-to-be extinct major music labels are so desperate to preserve their dying business model that they’ve now said that people who buy their music don’t actually own it.

So, you’ve purchased their major label product, while they rape their artists with accounting shenanigans and suddenly copying your CDs to your computer is illegal. By that logic, every album that I recorded to cassette when I was a kid makes me a criminal that many times over. Even worse, I sometimes record television shows with a VCR and watch them at a later time. Should I turn myself in now, or wait for the media police to show up?

As a former musician who still has contacts in the industry, I’ve been on the fence when it comes to the downloading and sharing of MP3 files. I understand both sides of the argument – the artists who understandably don’t want to give away their product and the blurred lines of sharing music among friends or *gasp* even downloading MP3s off the intarwebs. I generally lean towards protecting the artist because the downloaders are generally a bunch of freeloading punks who want something for nothing, whether it’s music, software, movies or some other commodity.

However, when it comes to the major labels, they deserve every bit of what they’re getting now. Even if you set aside the fact that most of what they put out is absolute crap, the industry itself has a rich history of abusing its artists beyond anything most reasonable people would believe. Don’t mistake all their lawsuits as some type of valiant effort to protect their artists. They’ve spent their careers financially gang banging their artists (most of the time against their will), so the last thing they’re trying to do is help them. The majors are trying to save their own asses, and those are some sorry asses that aren’t worth saving.

More from the Economist (via Insty).

That’s just one of the problems the dinosaurs face. The chickens are coming home to roost for the majors. Since their official decline began in the 90s, the best rock/power-pop product has been released by the indies and the mid-level labels with nationwide distribution. The majors have failed on so many levels – from the quality of the garbage they put out to their own refusal to accept and embrace technological shifts – that there will be no official day of mourning when they’re referred to solely in past tense.

UPDATE: As See-Dub notes in the comments, the facts from the WaPo story aren’t exactly as the case happened. LaShawn Barber chronicles the whole thing for you. This is what I get for trusting the Old Media.

While the whole being-prosecuted-for-transferring-your-own-CDs-to-digital-format was inaccurate, my comments about the major labels remains. They suck out loud, even if this story was wrong.

Michele at Cutting School, very special friend of the Buffet, is starting up a music-related blog for those who may be so inclined. Sounds like it has potential, but she needs help naming it so go lend a hand.

Were you there the day Billy Squier’s career died? I was. And I’ll never be the same.

Well, this is certainly a case of “WTF were they thinking?!”.

I don’t mean to ridicule as their hearts were in the right place (God bless them). But.. but.. Twisted Sister!? Did anyone even go see them in early 80’s when they were “popular”?

Besides carrying the “metal flag” against the PMRC, what has Dee Snider ever done besides host some VH1 shows?

You smell that? That’s Christmas in the air my friends. Smells good, eh (for my Canadian friends)? It also means that the end of 2007 is drawing nigh. With that in mind, I would like to step away from reality TV indulgence and political pontification to offer my music reviews for 2007.

Given that my musical taste is limited to mostly country, alt-country and it’s derivatives, these reviews will probably will probably, in-turn, have limited interest.

Son Volt – The Search

Rating: 1 Peanut Butter and ‘Nanner Sandwich (out of 4)

After Jay Farrar and the Son Volt gang layed a tremendous turd in 2005 with Okemah and the Melody of Riot, I had high hopes for this new release. It was rumored that Jay was going back to what made him one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Unfortunately it was just a rumor as we were delivered another dose of falsetto-Farrar coupled with poorly-structured political angst.

Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

Rating: 1.5 Peanut Butter and ‘Nanner Sandwiches

If you believe that Jeff Tweedy doesn’t miss Jay Bennet, then I am sure that you also probably believe that Algore richly deserved his Nobel Peace Prize for perpetrating a hoax on the simple-minded Earth-worship crowd. While Sky Blue Sky is a little more listenable than the previous cure for insomnia A Ghost is Born, it’s still lacking the musical depth and originality that we saw on the first three classic Wilco releases. Even though I would rather listen to it than say.. I don’t know.. go to the dentist, it definitely does not receive steady play in my personal rotation.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Easy Tiger

Rating: 3 Peanut Butter and ‘Nanner Sandwiches

I have always said that an average Ryan Adams record is still better than 98.2% of anything else on the shelves today, and I am sticking with that statement. Granted, Easy Tiger isn’t the strongest release in his vast catalog but it does, however, further my theory that Ryan took a trip to the Crossroads years ago and offered the Devil a great deal on his soul. Yes, there are a few fillers on this CD but the quality tunes quickly overshadow any musical missteps.

Dig it.

You may remember a few years ago when Klaus Nomi picked the Bloggie Awards in a special post-mortem interview.

Thanks to the commies at YouTube, from the legendary Urgh! A Music War, here’s more Nomi – Total Eclipse live – Klaus kicking ass all up in your grill.

p.s. If anyone can help me find Urgh! on DVD, I would ever so grateful.

… can be better than the original!

Big sirloin tip to Yiddish Steel.

Bucking the entertainer trend of shopping for discount celebrity handbags babies on the Indonesian black market, Jack White apparently stuck his ball in somebody’s biscuit and had a sweet little time about it:

NEW YORK – Jack White and his wife, Karen Elson, are the parents of a baby boy.

The couple’s second child, named Henry Lee White, was born Tuesday, a publicist for the White Stripes frontman said Wednesday.

True to his lo-fi indie roots, White immortalized the event by taking pictures with a Polaroid SX-70 Instant Camera and recorded the the baby’s primal birth scream on a #68 Edison Experimental Phonograph and will be dubbed to Betamax at the Easley-McCain recording studio in Memphis.

Family and friends can expect the vinyl copy of the historic day to be delivered by Pony Express some time in Early 2008. God willing and the creek don’t rise.

…we arrest you!

Iranian police arrested 230 people in a raid on an underground rock concert close to Tehran, amid a growing crackdown on behaviour deemed contrary to Islamic law, local officials said on Saturday.

Large quantities of recording equipment, alcohol, bootleg CDs, revealing female clothing and also drugs were seized at the concert in the city of Karaj just west of the capital, in Tehran province.

I think I speak for the RIAA when I salute the Iranian Prude Police for confiscating all those bootlegged copies of Twisted Sister that they just got last week.

“An investigation is in progress and soon a verdict will be issued for the main elements of the satan-worshipping instigatators and all these people will be punished.”

Who the hell do these people think they are? Al and Tipper Gore?

I know when the Islamotards start talking about a “rock party” that it usually ends with a raped teenage girl buried neck deep in the desert while a circle of sandpatch Nolan Ryans-es take aim with stones. But for those of us who still believe in the redeeming power of rock, the immoral mortar that adds another brick to the wall will only hold for so long.

Hey, preachers. Leave them kids alone.

When times is tough, or you just don’t care enough to blog, there is always ROCK. This song is best when turned up to 11. And yes, Dan, that’s Tanya Donelly sailing through space with the Catherine Wheel. Oh to be trapped in a cardboard spaceship with her…

Let’s lighten the mood a bit tonight. When I was a kid, I thought this song was by the Cars. I was obviously mistaken. Enjoy some rock Donnie Iris style.

Slublog finds this gem. It is a reunion of all the Who fans and musicians from the original studio recording of My Generation.

Simply touching.

Rolling Stone is commemorating their 40 years of world-changing, revolutionary contributions to the world of Rock and Roll.

Only, it really wasn’t all that world-changing or revolutionary. 6MB readers know we loves the rock music. But at the end of the day, we pretty much know that the music is just for fun and at it’s best the soundtrack to some of our best memories.

Jammie Wearing Fool points out a great article in the LA Times (click through JWF). Rolling Stone, as indicated by their decades of snarky leftism, seems to think otherwise. This leads to some exquisite cognitive dissonance when their idols don’t seem to be on the same wavelength.

It’s a different style of music – “blended with other styles from the past, present and future”

A lyrical sample…

The most frightening part of this video is that this may indeed be the style of the future.

h/t The Wily Canuck

Funny, Preston Jr. and I just read Oh, The Thinks You Can Think the other night.

Cancel your subscription to the mild erection.

Four surviving groupies and three DJs from Rock 103FM were despondent for different reasons this afternoon upon learning that The Doors are no longer a group. Again.

British rock singer Ian Astbury has quit the Doors revival band formed by two of the legendary group’s members, and will resurrect his old combo the Cult, he said on Thursday.

Astbury convincingly filled the late Jim Morrison’s shoes in Riders on the Storm for the past four years, playing alongside original Doors members, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger.
[...]
“This has been a difficult decision to make but I feel I would be holding them back as well as myself if I did not depart at this time.”

That’s right, Ian. It’s you who has been holding Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger back. By filling their audiences up with women in their late 30s rather than ones in their early 60s?The leather pantaloned fiend.

But that wasn’t the only news rocking the music world tonight. Boy band marketeer “Captain” Lou Albano-Pearlman, credited for inflicting the Backstreet Boys and ‘n Sync on the co-workers of women who love shitty pop music, was arrested this evening on charges as of yet unrelated to exposing himself to minors.

A stunned nation waits for the other shoe to drop.

GRATUITOUS UPDATE: Hello, shoe.

Completely off any kind of topic, but I’m noticing that when I listen to New Order on my little I-pod thingy, I tend to get a lot of stuff done very quickly. Now I’m going to listen to some Electronic and see if the same thing happens.

My theory is that Bernard Sumner’s inane lyrics and unchallenging melody lines allow the listener to slip into a kind of trance, allowing for high productivity. I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: The computer-programmed drum machines and sequencers help to maintain this trance-like state, methinks.

In a banjo pickin’, gingham wearin’, tobacc-uh chewin’ spitoon of investigative journalism, the New York Times spent serious ink on uncovering Democrats in a state with a Democrat Governor and in a city that hasn’t had a Republican Mayor in over a century:

In Nashville, Sounds of Political Uprising From the Left
[...]
Country music, the genre of lonely hearts and highways, lost jobs and blue-collar woes, has become a cultural battleground. Conservatism is widely seen as having the upper hand, a red-state answer to left-leaning Hollywood.

Democrats on Music Row, the country music capital here, have grown frustrated with that reputation. A group of record-company executives, talent managers and artists has released an online compilation of 20 songs, several directly critical of Mr. Bush and the Iraq war.

The price for the set is $20, with most of the proceeds going to the group, which calls itself Music Row Democrats and is using the money to support local and national candidates who share its values.

Though I didn’t think it was possible to whitewash the Music Row Democrats considering their palpable pallor, the NYT does a terrific job of trying to portray these BS artists as simple hicks with a conscience. Make no mistake, The Music Row Democrats are a Hard Left outfit. There is nothing middle class about these contrived images that the Pro Tools crowd who’ve been hoisting some of the most vapid suburban pop music and calling it country since Garth Brooks left his thumbprints on the Billboard charts.

And nothing says “we’re the voice of the common man” like hiding who you represent because you’re afraid they’ll get “Dixie Chicked”.

But talentlessly they go on:

The songwriter Darrell Scott contributed “Goodle U.S.A.” Faith Hill had recorded it under a different name and without the line “It’s like Joe McCarthy was our acting president.”

Mr. Scott recently recorded a new song, “W Cheese,” in a basement studio at Famous Music on Music Row. One verse ends, “They filled our plate with freedom fries, red, black and blue, white lies/And a helping, heaping, hating size of stinkin’ W cheese.”

“I’ve never thought of myself as very political,” he said. “It just seems like in the current environment even I have to write about it.”

It’s a cheesy environment all right. That’s about as deep as a coffee saucer. All in all, I was reminded of my recent foray into Country’s Caucasian enclaves:

Bartender: What’ll ya have?

Unseen patron: A PBR.

A PBR? I’ve overplayed my hand so soon. A rookie mistake. This Newcastle in my hand was attracting more glares than the high-shine on the Doc Martens of the womyn next to me.

A tactical error to be sure. These neo-urban sophisticates are co-opting my steel shucking granddad’s brand. Progressive Popeyes to my British Brutus. Armcurling 12 fluid ounces of canned proletarian credibility.

The Times chose this homespun vignette carved out of the multi-billion dollar Music Row:

Where else can you dial up Black Sea-era XTC live from 1982?

One of the great drummers of all time was born today in 1948. Wikipedia says of him:

Heavily influenced by Buddy Rich, Ian is one of the few hard rock drummers who uses swing and jazz inflections in his powerhouse style. He is also left-handed, being one of the few who play on a totally left-handed drum setup (another example is Phil Collins). Many left-handers either learn to play right-handed (e.g. Ringo Starr) or adapt their technique to suit a right-handed kit.

He brought forward from a previous generation of rock drummers the tight, precise playing and crisp, clean sound of the best of his predecessors but added power, formidable speed and technique to create a unique style and sound giving the best of both worlds. . . .

Ian is also one of the few rock drummers who has mastered the one handed roll.

You can see him doing the one handed drum roll here. But since I’m not a huge fan of the drum solo, I’d rather listen to Ian Paice’s work alongside his band Deep Purple in their heyday.

Modern Drummer selected “Burn” as one of the “Top Twenty Drum Tracks of the Seventies,” to which I would say, “just the seventies?” I love that song.

Here is a video of Deep Purple performing “Burn” in 1974. If you love cool drumming, classic dinosaur rock, or cheese, you should all get a kick out of it.

Happy Birthday Ian Paice!