Rock Water Cooler – Things to talk about to appear really smart….
Top 10 – This week’s Americana chart
1 ROBERT PLANT Band of Joy
2 RYAN BINGHAM & THE DEAD HORSES Junky Star
3 RAY LAMONTAGNE & THE PARIAH DOGS God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise
4 JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE Harlem River Blues
5 MARTY STUART Studio B Sessions
6 LOS LOBOS Tin Can Trust
7 MAVIS STAPLES You Are Not Alone
8 OLD 97S The Grand Theatre
9 JOHN MELLENCAMP No Better Than This
10 KIM RICHEY Wreck Your Wheels
→ After retiring the floppy disk in March, Sony has halted the manufacture and distribution of another now-obsolete technology: the cassette Walkman. The final batch was shipped to Japanese retailers.The first generation Walkman was released on July 1, 1979. Sony sold more than 200 million Walkman’s over the 30 years.
Rob Nichols
VIDEO: Buffalo Springfield reunite at Neil Young's Bridge Benefit
Over the weekend, Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello and Elton John, among others, played Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View, California. The highlight? A reunited Buffalo Springfriend performance – the first since 1968. Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay were joined by CSN drummer Joe Vitale, who filled in for the late Dewey Martin, and Young’s longtime bassist Rick Rosas, who replaced the late Bruce Palmer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMcOOHsWZy4]
FYI about the concert and Bridge School: Proceeds benefit the Bridge School, which assists children with severe physical impairments and complex communication needsm aiding in the use of advanced augmentative and alternative communication and assistive technology.
VIDEO: Paul Simon/Chris Rock/Tracy Morgan – "Scarborough Fair" and "Gin and Juice"
It wins the Rockforward “Video of the Week” Award. Two masterful performances from Paul Simon and Tracy Morgan, and the star power of Chris Rock holding it together. From Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars, an event to raise funds for autism. Smile-inducing, and tweaks Auto-Tune, bad lyrics and Art’s hair.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRQ2_8b7B0I]
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears bring soul, funk and rock and roll stew to Indiana
The soul of Howlin’ Wolf and the party sounds of Sly Stone seem to have found a place to visit in Black Joe Lewis. A Friends of Bob live music co-op show brings roots-rockers (and the horns of) Lewis and his band The Honeybears to Nick’s in Lafayette on Friday night.
The band, hailing from Austin, TX, has been called a “high-octane octet: gritty and greasy garage rock meets old-school Wilson Pickett/Otis Redding-style vein-popping r&b” by the San Franciso Guardian. Worth the drive to Lafayette, if only based on that description. And with titles on his latest album Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is like “Big Booty Woman” and the James Brown-esque”Get Yo Shit”, I think we have a winner. (Friday, October 22nd – 8pm. – doors 7pm – with openers The Splendid Trend)
Venue: Nick’s – 402 Brown Street – West Lafayette – $18 (day of show)
Want to head South instead of North? The band plays at the IU Auditorium in Bloomington on Saturday night.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8h6mwP0Tog]
Ray Davies plays Kinks with others; Two Cow Garage "roots punk" delivers new album
Columbus, Ohio’s Two Cow Garage’s fifth album, Sweet Saint Me is a follow up to Speaking In Cursive. I’d call them roots-rock punk. First saw them open for the Bottle Rockets at a small dive roadhouse in Ohio about five years ago, and they’ve been through Indy a few times since. Sweet Saint Me was recorded at Hi/Lo Studios in Eden, New York. The boys are on the road through November, but no dates closer than Chicago, so far.
Hear “Lydia” from the new record
The Kinks frontman Ray Davies has a new record due, called See My Friends, an album of classic Kinks songs turned into collaboration. It comes out November 1st. He collaborates with Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica, among other artists.
“This project came about almost by accident,” says Davies wrote on his website. The project was started when he recorded a version of “Till The End Of The Day” in summer of 2009, with the late Big Star singer Alex Chilton. He went to Oslo to record with Metallica, New York to record with Jon Bon Jovi, New Jersey for Bruce Springsteen, and KONK studios in England for much of the rest.
Track List
1. Bruce Springsteen – “Better Things”
2. Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora – “Celluloid Heroes”
3. Mumford & Sons – “Days/This Time Tomorrow”
4. Lucinda Williams & The 88 – “Long Way From Home”
5. Metallica – “You Really Got Me”
6. Paloma Faith – “Lola”
7. Jackson Browne – “Waterloo Sunset”
8. Alex Chilton & The 88 – “‘Til the End of the Day”
9. Amy Macdonald – “Dead End Street”
10. Spoon – “See My Friends”
11. Black Francis – “This Is Where I Belong”
12. The 88 – “David Watts”
13. Gary Lightbody – “Tired of Waiting”
14. Billy Corgan – “All Day and All of the Night/Destroyer”
Ray Davies and Jon Bon Jovi
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lopKf3GiI8]
Old 97’s new album came out October 12, and is called The Grand Theatre Volume One. The band recorded it in spring 2010 in Austin and Dallas with the same production team from Blame It On Gravity. Hear “Every Night is Friday Night” and “State of Texas on their myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/theold97s
Indiana Music: Graveyard Stompers – "Rise to the Occasion"
Give this to the Graveyard Stompers: the four songs on their new Rise to the Occasion EP are fun and rootsy, in a Here Come the Mummies or Johnny Socko way. Fake scary songs like “Killer’s Touch” and “Dead of the Night” are rendered playful by the gutty and goofy guitars and horn-laden accents.
The Asbury Jukes-sounding horns on the Graveyard Stomper’s “Killer’s Touch” are spectacular. On all the album’s tunes, this song’s campy moments are coupled with rock homages. We love the “Telstar”-ish solo that surfaces.
“Going Commando” is ’50s pop number about (no kidding) an alien eating a woman’s underwear. Likeable and from the female perspective, there’s no heavy lifting required to find the funny. It just is. And a keening trumpet solo doesn’t hurt. “No Remorse” is more gritty, with a Blondie/Go Go power pop via Julie Brown (the one who sang “Homecoming Queen Got A Gun”, not the MTV awful wubba wubba 80s VJ) touch. Like much of the album, the tune and band win when the music roars to the front of the mix, here with a hint of Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True.
“Dead of the Night” is rockabilly, more horns and echoing female background vocals ripped off from the ghosts of the Andrews Sisters.
The EP is good fun – kinda like if Ozzy Osbourne had fronted a nine-piece punk/pop/horn band, circa 1982.
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The Graveyard Stompers play at the Witches Ball in Muncie on October 23 and at Indianapolis City Market on October 30
Graveyard Stompers website
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EMKV5HthOU]