Posts Tagged ‘Rock & Roll’
Amazing Grace – MP3
In U2’s “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” Bono sings, “Early morning, April 4 / A shot rings out in the Memphis sky.” Martin Luther King, Jr. was, in fact, assassinated at 6:01 pm on April 4, 1968 — forty years ago this very moment. Bono has since conceded his mistake, and expressed his dissatisfaction…
Read MoreGive Me The Song
I woke up at five after just three hours of restless sleep. “Golden Days” director Chris Suchorsky and I’d had at least one beer too many the night prior. All that talk about film festival dos and don’ts had my head spinning all night. A five o’clock wake normally inspires a quick visit to the…
Read MoreSpectacle
Stepping into The Distinguished Wakamba Lounge is like stepping off the continent. The air-conditioned 30° afternoon notwithstanding, the place feels more Puerto Rico than Eighth Avenue. Despite its proximity to Port Authority, there in the center of Manhattan’s last remaining sketchy neighborhoods, this railroad flat turned themed dive bar is well considered. Faux sea creatures,…
Read MoreShe’s So Heavy
“Do you know what the capital of Djibouti is? Djibouti.” It seemed funny at the time. I think it might have even warranted a knee slap. Which is often the case when you’re three beers in at Rockwood Music Hall. Back home in Hell’s Kitchen watching Frontline, though, I’m not entirely sure what I found…
Read MoreHave You Seen Me Lately?
“So what have you been up to?” That’s young Ryan Vaughn, drummer to half of the bands on the Lower East Side, talking. It’s just before seven o’clock on Saturday night. The sun has cast a warm, early-spring urbanglow on Avenue C. Ryan, Tony, Chris and I are sitting at an Italian restaurant across the…
Read MorePaying My Rent Every Day In The Tower Of Song
I’m not sure this’ll make a ton of sense, but the weekend kinda’ f*cked my shit up a little bit. As always, when we weren’t actually singing, Jason and I spent our time talking about songs, songwriting, and the music business. We’re an odd pair in such conversations. Though he dabbles in politics and has…
Read MoreRaining Jane: On Any Given Sunday
Forget that the music industry doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing with itself. Between MySpace, iTunes, ProTools, Twitter, YouTube and the rest, bands don’t need major labels anyway. They’re doin’ it for themselves. In some strange way, 2008 may as well be 1908, or 1808. America’s highways are packed with minstrels and troubadours: folk-rock,…
Read MoreClose Your Eyes And Start To See
The last time I stood in front of a thousand people with a guitar in my hands and sang, I’d rehearsed. I’ll be honest: I regretted the ambition of my scheduled 36-hour, New York to Des Moines trip the instant my clock radio sounded at 3:45 Saturday morning. A cold drizzle was falling on Tenth…
Read MoreGoing To Graceland
“It always rains when I’m at Graceland.” Thus began my journal entry (the old fashioned paper kind) on Monday, October 21, 1996. The dateline was Memphis, Tennessee. Just thirty-six hours earlier, I’d hatched a half-baked (actually, I was really baked), last-minute plan to squander the weekend prior to my start date at MTV News on…
Read MoreCardmember Since, Um, Noon
I’m not gloating. It’s just that it blows my mind that I’m now, officially, the kind of guy who carries a corporate card. “Corporate” has always been a dirty word for me. It makes me think of unethical, hob knobbing straw men in generic suits. It makes me think of greed, uniformity, and homogeneity, anonymous…
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