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The chick in rosey pink is in stark opposition to Sturgill's black clad band. The boys came with the gasoline to burn the barn down. The flames ascended as Strugill and his band of high handed bandits put on one of the most joyous fucking sets of the last two years. SNL should invite them back to bump up those ratings. SNL is the epitome of spineless. Jim Belushi is spitting hard rock candy your way.  Insouciant is too soft a word for him. This gentleman, with his deadlock stare coupled with his scorching guitar style playing, is a renegade, a bad ass, rebel. He is the Lester fucking Bangs of rock and the Jack Kerouac of random musings. Brilliant. I've watched this numerous times. It's a 4-minute shot of Nitro, if toned down, and a shot of Jack turned up. I am not a Whiskey woman, but I feel watching this when the sun goes down deserves some distilled bliss.  Let’s break this pyrotechnic fueled baby down now shall we…  I just titled SS's 5th alb...

"Sometimes you have to get along  I know the truth...... " Fools Gold epitomizes the elegance of a bongo based, guitar slithered song. John Squire out does himself by wrecking his riffs.. Ian Brown reeks havoc on his bongo. The bewitching lyrics remain buried under the cacophony. Catch a catch phrase like the one above if you can. It is a brilliant song complete with glass breaking notches at the denouement. Sound designed around the heady prospect that I THINK (my opinion) stems from the disillusionment with the record music industry. Those heavy bangs on that bongo prove to be perverse and wildly infectious. Yhe track seems vrashly sloppy yet reigned in for production purpose.  John mans it up with his bold somewhat ugly sounding guitar noise. This song is noise. But noise with a purpose. A protest.  A Lemon song..... "So the lemon is actually a symbol of protest and defiance, and form a direct link to the song title “Bye Bye Badman” "Brown claimed t...

“Just like “The Bag Lady” Erykah Badu said, “Pack light!” Less is more while on tour, always.” Anonymous.  "You might miss me when I'm gone" What’s going on? I have noticed a rash of stolen gear from musicians. Some left the guitar in the car, walked away for a hot minute and smash goes the window. Bye Bye Strat. While researching this hot button topic, I came across many people who had their equipment walk away. Most never is returned. While I don’t have a lot of empathy for bigger name bands who are familiar with tour life yet still leave ALL their expensive gear in a trailer outside a motel in Houston, I do think thieves suck. What I’ve learned too is thieves can be plagued by indolence. Yet once they get your stuff they are like Cheetahs in the savanna or a reality show princess in Bloomingdales. They are quick and often crazy. Yet they move your gear for the money. Most likely the money they get isn’t even for the full value. I suppose their bargaini...

Deadfellow - Hayden Sammak    Hayden goes deep Amphetamine Salts Christopher Michaels Deadfellow pours on the tension on ‘Amphetamine Salts’, the title track to his latest album ‘Millennials in love (& other post-apocalyptic standards)’.               In the vast sea of up and coming artists that swell, crest and crash through social media, there is one thing you will rarely find; that elusive artistic concept of ‘vision’.   This wired world we live in breeds new artists by the gigabyte, hell bent on hustling ‘merch’, but not much inspiration.   In contrast,   Deadfellow (aka Hayden Sammak) presents us with 2018’s ‘Millennials in love (& other post-apocalyptic standards)’.   Here you will find seven tracks with a sprawling vision of modern youth and the anxiety inducing world around them.             The title ...

Sleater-Kinney -The Center Won’t Hold Christopher Michaels How many bytes does it take to destroy the soul of a band? (The death of Sleater-Kinney) Add caption             The latest and, as always, “long-awaited” album from Sleater-Kinney The Center Won’t Hold was released this week, most likely to glowing reviews from the mainstream music press.   There is no need for me to rehash in detail the importance of Sleater-Kinney in music history, nor the fact that they mean so much to so many.   We focus our attention now on The Center Won’t Hold and what went so terribly wrong.             To start with, before I had even listened to the first note I did a bit of reading about the basic background of the album.   The band wanted to “explore new artistic territory” then, “this would be the last album with drummer Janet Weiss” and,   final...

I had this major idea to write about shoegazing and a specific band, Secret Shine, and the ever wonderful Slow Dive. I still haven't gotten to it. A 2019 goal. But Dean from Secret Shine told me he listens to alot of Gaz Coombes so I gave the man from Oxford England a go. he currently lives in the artsy enclave of Brighton, home to the band Secret Shine and two members of Gomez. Gaz does not disappoint. He played in a 90s band Supergrass that I will check out. Now he goes it alone. 2 LPs down, he has been actively touring to support his latest "World's Strongest Man".  I checked out the song "Walk the Walk" and was immediately drawn in to Gaz's world.  Relying a chunky bass line meshing with his mellifluous soothing voice. On this track he sounds a bit like Thom Yorke and then a bit like Beck. It creates an intriguing dichotomy.  The song, judging from it's lyrics, is political in nature. But don't get hypnotized by the lie. It...

"Spooky " was originally an instrumental song performed by saxophonist Mike Sharpe (Shapiro) ...." The original blissed out with a superior Sax solo. The lyric splashed out around the wave of electrically picked guitar licks. "Spooky" is a quintessential Halloween jam. Since it's September 3rd and Halloween decorations hit the stores two weeks ago, let me take ths time to pontificate on the 2 better covers of the original song. "In the cool of the evening' when everything is getting' kind of groovy I call you up and ask you if you'd like to go with me and see a movie First you say "no", you've got some plans for the night And then you stop, and say, "all right"…   Atlantic Rhythim section took on the Spookayness in 1979.ARS did a studio version as well as a live version. Let me dicuss my thoughts on their rendition before I talk about he lovely Dusty, the Johnny Cash lass of covers. Both made this their own....