Couple concert notes for fans of the rock and roll from cool guys in nice suits:
WTTS announced on Monday that they will bring Chris Isaak to Indy with special guest Steven Page (ex-Barenaked Ladies) for a show on Friday, December 10. It’s their 2010 Rock To Read Christmas Concert at the Murat Theatre at Old National Centre.
Isaak is outstanding live, bringing the Roy Orbison croon and Elvis shake together with smoldering good looks and a crack band. Nothing more needed, I say. And proceeds go to fund more reading via the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library.
Tickets go on sale October 15 at 10am, priced at $65, $42.50 and $24.75
In a little more than a week, the Max Weinberg Big Band play at the Jazz Kitchen, with a show on October 20. The gig, which features Weinberg fronting (backing?) an outgrowth of the music he made with as Conan O’Brien’s bandleader across two shows. It’s big band swing, heavy on Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich influences. They also include a Boss Time segment, featuring music from Weinberg’s “other gig” – his 36 years with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Weinberg recently revealed that he had life-saving open heart surgery just two weeks after the end of the ill-fated O’Brien’s version of the Tonight Show.
“On Feb. 8, I (had) 12 hours of massively invasive open heart surgery,” the 59-year-old told Fancast.com in an interview. “Two years ago, it became life-threatening and I had to do something about it sooner or later.”
The band plays twice when they stop here, with shows at 7 & 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $30.
Rob Nichols
VIDEO: John Lennon – three songs for his 70th
John Lennon would have turned 70 Saturday. Standing apart from much of the “normal” tribute stuff, I want to post a video that is one of the most intimate of Lennon from YouTube. John sings as he runs his distorted electric guitar through a small amp, for Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line, and Buddy Holly’s “Maybe Baby” and “Peggy Sue”. Sure, Yoko is sitting with him, but it’s all good; it’s a bit of footage that is more relaxed than professional, like much of their home movie material. But his playing is rock and roll beautiful – snarly, rough and reverential.
I was 14 when Lennon was shot. It was before I understood the power and uniqueness of the Beatles, and of Lennon’s wit and solo music output. I know now. I wonder what voice he would have carried forward, not just in music, but with human rights and the causes of those who need a voice. Maybe he was perceived as a radical, but he stood up for beliefs that were also important for many who needed him to speak, because they couldn’t be heard.
For me, that makes it more tragic than on that December night, when Howard Cosell announced to the world on Monday Night Football that John Lennon was dead.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJuVcGipgAs]
MNF announcement
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcdz1IRVoM]
Indiana Music: Mandy Marie moves to Austin, Kid Rock channels some heartland rock
Mandy Marie Luke and her band’s concert last Friday night at Radio Radio was the last show for the group until the annual Cash Bash in February. She’s taking her badass Telecaster playing to Austin, Texas – the country-rock capital of the world. Good luck to her; we wish her the best… she has formed a new band down there.
(see more of Ed Wiliford’s photos on Facebook)
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Kid Rock will release his new album, Born Free, on November 16th. Produced by Rick Rubin, the first single from the album will be the title cut, sent to radio two weeks ago. The sound? I think Kid still wants to be Bob Seger.
Hear “Born Free” – click here
“The catalyst for this record was Detroit, and my thoughts on the world through the lens of Detroit,” Rock told rollingstone.com. “Watching everything go downhill over the past few years, the economy, the loss of jobs everywhere, I wanted to make a record that reflected the times but that still had soul.”
Rock remains a pied piper of genre-hopping, get-everyone-together-and-record music. According to his website. most of the album was recorded during a two week span in Los Angeles with musicians including Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith, and David Hidalgo from Los Lobos. Studios in Detroit, Nashville and Atlanta were used to incorporate collaborations with Bob Seger, Sheryl Crow, Zac Brown, Trace Adkins, T.I. and Martina McBride.
FOX Sports is using the song as their theme for MLB Playoff coverage, including the World Series.
Truth & Salvage Co., Shooter Jennings hit Indianapolis with WTTS
Truth & Salvage Co.‘s show at Birdy’s in May was one of the best of 2010, and they returned Wednesday (Oct. 6) as part of WTTS’ Emerging Artists Concert Series, with a show at the Creation Cafe on the Canal in downtown Indianapolis. One day later (Thurs., Oct. 7), outlaw rocker Shooter Jennings will perform live in for Studio 92 before his concert at The Vogue that night.
It continues a string of excellent shows for the station, giving spotlight opportunities for roots rock bands. It also give WTTS the chance to brand its 92-3 VIP Room, keeping the concerts private for their listeners, who register online for a seat for a show. Comcast also records some of the performances on video for their On-Demand offerings.
We caught up with WTTS Program Director Brad Holtz, who talked about how Studio 92 has evolved (Band Of Horses, the Doobie Brothers, Train, David Gray and the BoDeans are among the artists who have appeared in 2010) and how the shows at the Creation Cafe, which started in August of this year, will continue in 2011.
2011 Rock Hall Nominees: Who will get in? Who won't? Rob tells all
With the 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees just announced, there are a couple easy picks and many nominees that elicit a “huh?” Plus, the slights just keep on comin’…
First, who is not nominated: Cheap Trick, Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Devo, Stevie Ray Vaughn or KISS. And how about Willie Nelson? It’s criminal, I say.
Among the 15 artists, first-time nominees (artists who released their first record in 1985 are eligible for the first time) include Bon Jovi, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, Donovan and Alice Cooper. Previously nominated artists include J. Geils Band, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, along with New Orleans legend Dr. John, disco queen Donna Summer, and R&B/disco act Chic. Also nominated are Laura Nyro, Darlene Love, Chuck Willis and Joe Tex.
Remember Them? Detroit's Rockets Return
There once was, and is again, a rock and roll band from Detroit called The Rockets. A helluva rock band. No big hits, but Detroit rock radio embraced them, and they were local heroes from 1972 until they faded away in 1983.
The pedigree that made them noteworthy were two leaders that were driving forces behind the Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels. Johnny (Bee) Badanjek (drums) and Jim McCarty (guitar) both fueled the R&B rock and roll craziness of Ryder’s sound, and, as musicians do, eventually left the band to do their own thing.
They became the Rockets.
You could have dubbed them “Kings of the Openers”; they opened for the big rock bands of the time – and not just in Detroit. They traveled with KISS, Seger, ZZ Top, among many. But they never could get any bigger than that. Never had a big radio hit beyond the Motor City. But even the band’s later stuff , like “Rollin’ By The Record Machine” elicited a vintage Bob Seger energy.
With lead vocalist Dave Gilbert, the Rockets reached their biggest success in 1979 with a Top 40 hit doing a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”. The hard partying Gilbert ended up taking a job hanging drywall, and died in 2001 at age 49.
Badanjek is one of rocks truly great drummers. And McCarty an engaging, gritty rock guitarist. They had continued to play music, just not together. That changed when they formed the Motor City Music Review in 2009, a Motown/rock and roll cover-type band. Then into a band called the Hell Drivers, with new frontman Jim Edwards. Things started to happen.
Promoters in Detroit and Flint and Toledo started to call. How about a Rockets show? So they morphed back into The Rockets. And if the story ended here, with the band playing bars in Detroit, it would still be good, right?