Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Sep 16, 2011, 10:06 pm
"Night Train" from Arc of A Diver played on the way home, and it got me thinking of the time I saw Steve Winwood in Europe. A little internet research just now and I can tell the tale: That my grandfather had decided he would take me to Europe after my high school graduation on or around the 15th of...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Sep 9, 2011, 7:19 pm
  Don't worry, Hipster Kitty, and Hipster Kitty fans, I haven't decided to change featured memes for this blog, although I will admit to having briefly considered it. But no, Music Nerd Octopus is just a guest today, on loan from his real home at http://fuckyeahmusicnerdoctopus.tumblr.com. (And O...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Aug 14, 2011, 5:58 pm
Chuck Schuldiner's dead. Been dead. I had no idea. I'm not so sure whether the honorific that's tossed Schuldiner's way--"The Father of Death Metal"--is entirely accurate. I'm no expert but a quick look at Wikipedia confirms that both Carcass and Possessed released albums considered firmly in t...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jul 30, 2011, 8:52 am
So I started a Tumblr blog Friday. I wanted to send a link to my Sonic Youth piece to a dude who I follow on Tumblr, and their system told me I had to register with them if I wished to send a message. So what the fuck, right? Pictures and snippets will go there, longer pieces will continue to be p...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jul 25, 2011, 3:16 pm
Or, Thurston Moore is a Big Fuckin' Dick I guess I ought to start visiting Pitchfork again, or start blog-hopping at elbo.ws. It seems a little repetitive to always be writing about what Spin has written for the month. Also: I remember when I was reading Shakey, Jimmy McDonough's excellent biograp...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jul 18, 2011, 7:49 pm
Read something interesting if not necessarily immediately arresting to me last week at Boing Boing. Said that the current laws regarding sampling are so screwed up, it would cost The Beastie Boys 22-1/2 million dollars to clear the rights for Paul's Boutique, should they try to record and release th...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jul 4, 2011, 10:21 am
How about we do it Tumblr-style (sorta) today? Washington Squares - Fair and Square - 01 Fourth Day of July.mp3 192 kbps mp3, up for six weeks File under: Neo-beatnik Neo-folk
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jul 1, 2011, 11:10 am
So the U2 360° tour passed through town Wednesday. I was not at Sun Life Stadium for the event, nor had I wished to be. I have instead put my measly weekly discretionary income aside for The Psychedelic Furs, who are playing The Culture Room tonight. If I were looking for the authentic concert ex...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jun 28, 2011, 12:02 pm
Thinking a little further about yesterday's post (and thank you Mr. Crabb for commenting on it). . . . Alright, so I'm bitching about corporate radio stations and the litany of same old same old. Fair enough. But why DO the corporate stations structure things in the way that they do? Or, to pen...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jun 27, 2011, 7:03 pm
One of my favorite things in the whole world is when I go on over to RS Crabb's Top Ten site and he's written another rant about how terrible Classic Rock radio is. "Fucking radio kills me," he says. Such purity of emotion, you know? Some Clear Channel automaton plays "Margaritaville," and Crabby'...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - May 23, 2011, 4:41 pm
My experience is, it's more likely that a new song about an old movie will be worthwhile than a new movie about an old song. Not that "The Union Forever" is new, mind you, but please understand there is in general a time lapse involved when considering my picking up on things known to most others. ....
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - May 15, 2011, 2:01 pm
Happy birthday to Brian Eno, and Happy Brian Eno's birthday to everyone else. Did you know that ABBA is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but that Eno is not? This despite Eno's role in the establishment of the seminal art rock band Roxy Music. This despite the revoltionary quartet of art pop alb...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - May 15, 2011, 12:58 am
Given my love of stupid widgets, I'm sure you're surprised I hadn't posted one of these ages ago . . . . I copied the text from my atom feed, which goes back 25 posts, and then used notepad to edit out the boring words, prepositions articles pronouns, relative and otherwise, and forms of the verb t...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - May 10, 2011, 12:04 pm
I remember writing some time ago about an album cover that was particularly apt. These are the flipside. Not horrible, necessarily, not laughable, nor even bad, just wrong in some way for the music contained within. ------------- Molly Hatchet S/T The artwork by Frank Frazetta is a sword and sorce...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - May 2, 2011, 3:56 pm
There was only one single taken from ZZ's fourth record, and this marvelously syncopated blues beauty wasn't it. Though it should have been. Now, as one of the world's foremost Caucasian admirers of women who put the the 'max' in gluteus maximus, I'm certainly not gonna have too many issues with a...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Apr 24, 2011, 1:51 pm
Inspired no doubt by the new Explosions in the Sky album, the folks at Spin in their May issue produced a good little featurette about the history of instrumental rock. Though I enjoyed the thing quite a bit (and can you believe I've still never heard Link Wray's "Rumble"?), there's definitely some...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Apr 21, 2011, 6:46 pm
Please join me and give a warm La Historia de la Musica Rock welcome to the newest member of our blogteam, Hipster Kitty. Although she's of course famous all over the internets for the work she does at Memebase and at I Can Has Cheezburger, it turns out that Hipster Kitty doesn't actually write. I ...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Apr 15, 2011, 12:07 pm
From the "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy" file . . . . Ever since I got III (or Jr. Jr., as I sometimes call him) with his fancy voice over software, I've gotten an intermittent kick from his fairly frequent misprononunced bandnames and titles. I've got lots of Les Baxter loaded up into the ...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Apr 11, 2011, 8:18 pm
This is another one that gets tied up in my head with a science fiction story. In this case the story is "Push No More," by Robert Silverberg, a novelette which first came to my attention when it was collected in the author's excellent late '80's collection, Beyond The Safe Zone. The sci-fi element...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Mar 22, 2011, 8:32 pm
   8.The Beatles - "The Inner Light" 7. Nirvana - "Endless Nameless" 6. The Stooges - "LA Blues" 5. Butthole Surfers - "Graveyard 1" 4. Neu! - "Super 78" 3. John Coltrane - "Jupiter Variations" 2. Happy Flowers - "Left Behind" 1. Napoleon XIV - "!Aaah-aH ,yawA EM EkaT OT GnimoC"    The list a...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Mar 17, 2011, 6:00 pm
Over at his site, RS Crabb was talking about how vocalist Ronnie Hammond from the Atlanta Rhythm Section had a fatal heart attack on Monday. That got me thinking again about being a stupid fucking teenager: Whoa, ARS, been a long time since I've heard that name . . . . I'd always find their single...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Mar 10, 2011, 4:32 pm
He's a tortured artist Used to be in The Eagles Now he whines like a wounded beagle Poet of despair Puffed up with hot air He's serious, pretentious and I just don't care Don Henley must die Don't let him get back together With Glenn Frey, Don Henley must die Cut on the TV And what did I s...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Mar 8, 2011, 6:41 pm
When I got home and took a look at my ITunes library, I saw a bunch more, such that I thought I'd just go ahead and go fullbore on the thing, skipping of course the five I'd mentioned in the previous post. . . . .    10.Blue Cheer - "Summertime Blues"   9. The Pixies - "Distance Equals Rate Tim...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Mar 8, 2011, 9:24 am
From Negative Pleasure via my new favorite Tumblr blog, Only the Young Die Young: the time mixtape: - gimme some good times - lou reed - hoochie koo time - big stick - waste of time - turncoats - action time vision - alternative tv - now’s the time - shadow of fear - pizza time - duc...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Mar 4, 2011, 7:20 pm
This is what I love about my Last FM software: I could be fiddling with my baseball cards with the iTunes open, and "Solid Space" from Olias of Sunhillow could randomly come on and all of a sudden I'll have this window opened for me with this seriously badass photo that I'd never before in my life ...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Feb 24, 2011, 10:21 pm
   10. Hefner - "Hello Kitten"   9. Sonic Youth - "Loop Cat"   8. 65daysofstatic - "This Cat is a Landmine"   7. Matching Mole - "Instant Kitten"   6. Squirrel Bait - "Kick the Cat"   5. The Cure - "The Lovecats"   4. Ted Nugent - "Cat Scratch Fever"   3. The Stray Cats - "Stray Cat Stru...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Feb 22, 2011, 4:49 am
Ten songs selected in honor of the 504-hour virus which continues to plague me.    10. Disturbed - "Down with the Sickness"   9. UFO - "Doctor Doctor"   8. Unsane - "Sick"   7. die kreuzen - "Pain/Sick People"   6. Alice in Chains - "Sickman"   5. Run-DMC - "You Be Illin'"   4. Queens...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Feb 10, 2011, 1:45 am
I remain sick as a rheumy dog--not dead yet but still, yellow matter custard all over the fucking place--and it's kept me from posting here since Punxsutawney Phil did his thing. Still, I was able to squeeze out an interesting comment this afternoon at Tad's Backup Plan. I've long considered copyin...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Feb 1, 2011, 10:08 pm
We all like ourselves some apple pie, but seems like most of us are gonna have to get used to settling for Corn Chex. Whether it's the same day-different shit movie or Primus' genre-bending musing on being cheated that you cotton to in regards February 2nd, it makes perfect total excruciating sense ...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 30, 2011, 3:46 pm
Beyond the tirades of profane baseball men and the clever movie dialogue, there is at least one more great class of spoken word often loaded onto Junior Jr., and that is those endlessly entertaining excerpts from the BBC One radio shows of the late great John Peel. I used to run around saying that B...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 26, 2011, 7:32 pm
   10.  Korn - Korn   9.  Moon - The Alan Parsons Project   8.  Hydra's Teeth - ... And You Will Know Us              By the Trail of Dead   7.  Underworld - Entombed   6.  Sun - Billy Thorpe   5.  Revolution - T. Rex   4.  Future - Steve Miller Band   3. ...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 23, 2011, 10:46 am
Previously unpublished excerpts from Olias' Wiseguy Brother: Another View of the Doom and Salvation of Sunhillow: So he built a space ark, and saved the tribes of Sunhillow from certain doom: BIG FAT HAIRY DEAL. Olias was a freakin' klutz, so discombobulated, it was a wonder he found the tree-pod e...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 20, 2011, 7:26 pm
Unless I can track down a copy of Soundhog's Mashup album, that is. Anyway, this list and the artwork next door was something I put together about five years ago as part of a mix CD I'd made for a friend. You can see that I took the idea of putting together 100 records worth of rock history seriousl...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 17, 2011, 8:40 pm
"There are other worlds. This one is done with me."--Merlin (Nicol Williamson) in John Boorman's Excalibur The world gets older, and the magic goes away. That has always been the nature of things. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I forbid you maidens all that wear gold in your hair To travel to Car...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 12, 2011, 10:01 am
Like I promised the time before. These albums don't exist of course, but are simply referenced on the back of the booklet that came with Pussy Galore's tribute to/deconstruction of the Historia series from 1990. In its own way, this list is as funny as the one they provided with the originals. Ha...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 8, 2011, 10:36 pm
April March - "Laisse Tomber Les Filles" from the Death Proof OMPST  Interesting it is, I think, that in the wake of Gerry Rafferty's death January 4th, I've spent more time thinking about a guy getting his ear sliced off in a famously ultraviolent indie film than I have thinking about the deceased...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 5, 2011, 11:08 am
OK, so the deal with this, that Pussy Galore had so much fun with, and I still do, is that between 1981 and 1983, two Spaniards by the name of Juan Manuel Prado and Jordi Sierra i Fabra began writing and publishing a Spanish language rock and roll magazine with a biographical/discographical slant. I...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Jan 2, 2011, 2:54 pm
Having spent the last day and a half or so celebrating the arrival of a year for which I suspect they'll write no songs, I thought it might be a good time to compile a list of years that were in fact found worthy of such an honor, ironical or no (and I'm looking at you Dayglo Abortions).    "1959...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 31, 2010, 9:20 pm
That this bittersweet celebration song from the same guys who brought us the powerful and poignant "Time Bomb" is, along with The Standells' "Dirty Water," one of the best songs about the city of Boston is certainly true, but also something you might guess at from its title. But what you might NOT g...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 28, 2010, 6:56 pm
The 30 best songs* of the decade that ends Friday, ordered only by year, one song per band. Actually I should say the best songs THAT I'VE HEARD, it's why I put the asterisk, because the way I get around to stuff, I'll be hearing the real best of 2010 sometime in 2015. But, anyway, these are good...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 25, 2010, 1:29 pm
We've all heard the old canard that the sense of smell is the most immediate one, the sense that is most directly and most vividly tied to memory. And perhaps it's true. But I think it's still illuminating to note that when you talk to couples in love, they never describe something as "their smell....
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 22, 2010, 5:52 pm
The only pair of songs as far as I know in rock and roll history: song "a" by b, and song "b" by a.     2. Tom Waits - "The Fall of Troy" 1. The Fall of Troy - "Tom Waits"  Maybe you know of some others? The short but distinctive list as an iMix at Itunes, you can quickly preview and/or buy b...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 19, 2010, 11:45 am
I guess anyone reading this would be aware that Captain Beefheart died Friday. Interesting, actually, that I wrote the sentence above the way I did. I didn't write "Don van Vliet," I wrote "Captain Beefheart," though the man hadn't used the Beefheart moniker in almost 30 years. If you think abou...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 16, 2010, 6:20 pm
   7. Van Halen - "Happy Trails" 6. Yes - "Leave It (A Capella version)" 5. Todd Rundgren - "Lockjaw" 4. Suzanne Vega - "Tom's Diner" 3. Cream - "Mother's Lament" 2. TV on the Radio - "Ambulance" 1. Nomeansno - "Forward to Death"     The list as an iMix at Itunes, you can quickly previe...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 11, 2010, 9:44 pm
Just another workaday peon, that's me, another schmuck living a life constructed around sensible decisions, going to bed by 11:00 PM, so he can wake up by 7:00 and sit in rush hour traffic for 70 minutes, doing it over and over and over again, exchanging his life for a paycheck to exchange for a mor...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 10, 2010, 8:55 pm
I was over at Something Awful, checking out these designs they'd done for imaginary Criterion Collection DVD covers (you can see the rather amusing one they mocked up for that awful Cannibal Holocaust thing right here), and my eye was caught by a little featurette called "Everett True's Advice for A...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 10, 2010, 8:00 pm
    7. Cirith Ungol - "Finger of Scorn" 6. Pavement - "Best Friend's Arm" 5. Scratch Acid - "Eyeball" 4. The Raconteurs - "Hands" 3. Dinosaur, Jr. - "The Lung" 2. ZZ Top - "Legs" 1. Kyuss - "Thumb"     The list as an iMix at Itunes, you can quickly preview and/or buy all songs
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 7, 2010, 8:10 pm
    6. Peter Frampton - "Do You Feel Like We Do" 5. Joe Walsh - "Rocky Mountain Way" 4. Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box" 3. Jeff Beck - "She's A Woman" 2. Paul McCartney & Wings - "Goodnight Tonight" 1. Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan - "Tell Me Something Good"   The list as an iMix at Itunes, yo...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Dec 5, 2010, 4:51 pm
Ah, Jaz Coleman! Ah, humanity! What vital place in the soul does the mystic hold? With the mighty Killing Joke having in the last fortnight released their 14th album, Absolute Dissent, and it being as apocalyptic, perhaps, as any KJ album since Revelations, I thought it might be a good time to take...
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Joshua R. posted an article on La Historia De La Musica Rock - Nov 18, 2010, 9:32 am
Soft Cell's larger FM radio hit notwithstanding, "Memorabilia" is in my estimation the high-water point for 80's synthpop. Or at least, it's the point where the genre's aims best mesh with my own tastes, which admittedly run towards the somewhat dark. And "Memorabilia" is no doubt that. Beyond its ...
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