Revolution? What Revolution?

The Rock and Roll Hall of Lame is opening a Manhattan "Annex" to stage exhibitions. First cab off the rank is something called "Revolution Rock" featuring The Clash. Sponsors include Bloomingdales and BestBuy. Rock commodified? Naaaah...

An alternative to Guitar Hero

Accordion Hero. A polka fan's dream.

40 years ago today

The MC5 recorded "Kick Out the Jams".

Johnny Casino & The Secrets podcasted

That's a new podcast on the interface at right and it's featuring Johnny talking about his new album and spinning a few fave tunes. It's streamable or you can download it/subsribe to it here. Did I mention that almost certainly The Best Album I've Heard All Year?

Nate suffers stroke

There's been surprising little news about the fact that soul-pioneer-turned-garage-meister Nathaniel Mayer has suffered a series of strokes and finds himself confined to a nursing home.

Meyer had a series of comebacks in the last decade, culminating in a stunning album on Total Energy/Alive, "Why Don't You Give It To Me?" Mayer is backed by a contemporary cast of underground folks - Matthew Smith of Outrageous Cherry, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and Dave Shettler of SSM/The Sights - and it's a classic, a ball of skeletal feedback, raspy vocals and dark creepiness.

The I-94 Bar review is here and you can download an MP3 here. Considering Mayer had his first hit in 1962 ("Village of Love") we should be thankful that he could have been bothered recording, let along delivering something as great as this album.

There'll be a benefit show in November.

Received in the e-mail

It's from Detroit's First Lady of Punk, Niagara, and her beau, Colonel Galaxy.

Christies auction house goes punk

Purveyors of fine art go down-market and flog off punk memorabilia? Anything to turn a buck, the Christies spokesman seems to be saying here. I doubt, however, that even Yoko would fork out $200,000 for the late John Lennon's, er, organ.

Leaving Percy at home

The stories about Led Zeppelin touring without Robert Plant have received prime exposure today.

This suggests endless possibilities:

- Maybe the MC3 have a spare lead vocalist who's surplus to requirements (Evan, are you there?)
- They could call it Aluminium Zeppelin
- This will be a double-headed tour with The Doors of the 21st Century
- Maybe the new singer will be unearthed via a really lame reality TV show

The bottom line is that the new group might actually be listenable. Call me a heretic but I find Plant's preening prescence and overblown hysterics about as appealing as sipping a chai latte with Jimmy Barnes.

Stooges treasure ahead?

Rumours abound of a soundboard quality "Funhouse"-era Stooges show in someone's pipeline for commercial release. Could this snippet on UK label Easy Action's website be related? It's not soemthing we've chased down but either way it's good news:

The Stooges have now finished stooging around the world so we at easy action HQ await news from the band regarding possible work on newly acquired stooges tapes...mindblowing stuff i assure you !! Also Sir Pop 's second box set will be with us at the end of October we think you're gonna like it !...alot!

"Where the Faces Shine" Vol 2

Not all Iggy is good Iggy. The guy's solo career is littered with ill-considered chapters. But when the Pop fails, at least he's interesting, and the latest installment in UK label Easy Action's archival series "Where The Faces Shine" looks to contain more ups than downs.

We're looking at six CDs, a DVD and (if you get in quick) another live CD drawn from a gig on the 1988 Australian tour. The first two CDs are from the "Zombie Birdhouse" period. Not Ig's greatest album, granted, but the shows had an air of desperation about them which is often a plus.

Next up, there's a disc of demo's and other odds and sods (the "Repo Man" song among them) from the Steve Jones collaborations. Some of these demo's have been out there for a while but it's another collection that completists will love.

A 1986 "Blah Blah Blah" tour show spans two discs. Here's where Iggy picked himself up off the floor. The live material I've heard from the time has a lot more fire in the belly than the clean, Bowie-fied album.

The final CD is the Whisky-a-Go-Go "Instinct" tour warm-up/showcase. If it's in decent sound quality, it's going to be well worth hearing. This show was documeted in bass player Alvin's Gibbs' excellent tour diary book, "Neighborhood Threat".

The DVD is culled from TV appearances of the same vintage. My memory of the tour is of a professional but sometimes compelling band. The bonus Adelaide CD is said to be aurally rough and ready but also worth hearing.

I haven't laid ears on the full box set yet but a review will appear at the I-94 Bar.
Orders are being taken here where you can also view the full track lists.

Having fun with Fugazi

On a speaking tour that consists of extended Q & A sessions, Fugazi mainman Ian Mackaye is still has to deal with the straight edge question after all these years. The LA Times has more here. Still, I wouldn't turn up with a six-pack.

Recession down to Acca Dacca

Blame the global financial crisis on AC/DC. Not that it means Angus isn't laughing all the way to the bank, it's just that stashing the dosh under the matress might be a safer bet.

Deluxe Pretty

One of the most eagerly-anticipated re-issues for this year has to be Died Pretty's staggering full-length debut "Free Dirt".

Aztec Music is planning to give it the luxury make-over with a pile of demo's, live-to-air tracks and both sides of the "Stoneage Cindarella" single making up a double-disc package. It's much the same way that Citadel treated the "Doughboy Hollow" re-birthing (a copy of which you'd be mad not to procure here.)

Roughly coinciding with the re-issue, there will be two gigs by Died Pretty - the already sold-out Homebake festival in Sydney on December 6 and the E.G. Awards at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda on December 4.

Full info on the Aztec re-issue here.

Wide Open Road

Australian radio network Triple Jay is running a series that attempts to define the character of Australian music.

"Wide Open Road" hould be a blast judging by the look of the heavy-duty Shockwave website they've put up, from where you can download interview snippets and presumably full episodes.

Let's hope it steers away from the "let's re-write history and push certain commercial interests" that some TV-to-DVD efforts have followed in recent times.

KOTJ gig spawns CD

That Detroit area concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the recording of "Kick Out The Jams" is becoming a bigger deal, with a double CD of MC5 material by new bands. Read more here.

Great Ways To Party (part one)

Why not make your next soiree a Titanic Party? Book this baby and see the crappy animation here.

Tay Zonday: When "stain" rhymes with "pain"

A work colleague heard this as a backing track for the weather report on Australia's national yewf radio station Triple Jay. Ignoramuses that some of us are Down Under, we find that he's had multiple-million views on YouTube (and probably makes a zillion bucks from the annoying cross-promotion ads on the clip.)

He also writes nonsensical lyrics like this:

Chocolate stain
Dealing drugs across the states
Chocolate stain
And you wonder why the police dont hesitate

Chocolate stain
Everything handed right to you
Chocolate stain
College and money until our nation gets a clue

Chocolate stain
Do us all a favor and act like a human being
Chocolate stain
Or you belong with all the other apes in a tree

Bob Dylan he ain't.

The Damned tour US with new album

Surely punk rock's most enduring survivors (putting aside the Buzzcocks), The Damned are hitting the road on a US tour in support of their first album in seven years. Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible are the originals this time. More here.

Fan letter from Johnny Rotten, 40 years on

There's a fascinating insight into John Lydon's post-Pistols state of mind that's been posted by fan Martin Smyth at the unofficial Pistols site. Honest and optimistic, you can read it in situ here.

DIY publishing's biggest problem

If you're starting a zine (and who isn't?) here's a great guide to naming it.