Month: September 2015

Peter Astor, author of Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ Blank Generation, was recently was featured on BBC with his bandmates in The Loft! If you’re interested in listening to The Loft’s Gideon Coe BBC 6 Music session and interview from last week, but strapped for time – you’re in luck! Here’s the tidy 6 Music clips page with just songs and an interview. It even includes a ‘new’ song. Good sound – crank it up! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033hxly The Loft at a bar during the night of the BBC show. You wouldn’t want…

TO CELEBRATE YESTERDAY’S RELEASE OF OUR 107TH 33 1/3 ON  BEAT HAPPENING, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIFTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF BEAT HAPPENING WEEK BY AUTHOR BRYAN PARKER ! For readers who still haven’t heard the word about 33 1/3’s newest volume, Beat Happening, which was just released yesterday, the book is structured as an abecedary—an alphabet book. Each letter represents one element integral to Beat Happening and their debut album. Today, I’m happy to share one of those chapters–J is for Japan–in full. Many of the chapters delve into narrow,…

TO CELEBRATE TODAY’S RELEASE OF OUR 107TH 33 1/3 ON  BEAT HAPPENING, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF BEAT HAPPENING WEEK BY AUTHOR BRYAN PARKER ! In 2013, while on a trip to the Anacortes Unknown Music Series, I came up with the idea to interview Calvin Johnson on video. I was bringing some audio and video equipment to do some low budget documentary work about the festival anyway. Plus, I had spent some time around Calvin since first interviewing him in 2007, and had formed some friendships with…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 107TH 33 1/3 ON  BEAT HAPPENING, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF BEAT HAPPENING WEEK BY AUTHOR BRYAN PARKER ! Early on, Calvin Johnson and Beat Happening in general rejected the idea of differentiating or restricting based on age. In addition to challenging the conventions of music, Beat Happening’s stance on all ages shows reevaluates the conventions of who has access to music. To this day, Calvin insists that the shows he plays be open to all ages. This mindset and personal…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 107TH 33 1/3 ON  BEAT HAPPENING, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF BEAT HAPPENING WEEK BY AUTHOR BRYAN PARKER ! Beat Happening’s eponymous first album laid the groundwork for the material central force Calvin Johnson’s K Records imprint released in the future, including several subsequent Beat Happening records. Using Beat Happening as a template, the trio built upon their initial ideas, deepening and broadening them with each album. Although as early as the 1960s, postmodern ways of thinking seeped into musical expression…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 107TH 33/13 ON  BEAT HAPPENING, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE VERY FIRST INSTALLMENT OF BEAT HAPPENING WEEK BY AUTHOR BRYAN PARKER ! Shortly after I moved to Austin, TX for university in 2001, I began to frequent the now defunct record store 33 Degrees north of campus, where Phil Waldorf (who’s now a partner in Dead Oceans/Secretly Canadian) sold me CDs and kept me headed in the right direction. It was in that store that I picked up a curious and slim CD from…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 108TH 33 1/3 ON  METALLICA, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIFTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF METALLICA WEEK BY AUTHOR DAVID MASCIOTRA! Many heavy metal purists accused Metallica of “selling out” when they first heard The Black Album. Metallica’s then-new songs were simpler, at times slower, and slightly more accessible than their previous work. To many die hard thrash enthusiasts, any deviation from the thrash template was akin to apostasy. Like Judas, according to the slanderous and specious refrain, Metallica sold their soul for thirty…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 108TH 33 1/3 ON  METALLICA, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF METALLICA WEEK BY AUTHOR DAVID MASCIOTRA! In order to celebrate Metallica Week, and prepare for the release of the new 33 1/3 on Metallica (The Black Album), Bloomsbury and Bangarang Radio are combining forces to premiere a new episode of Jacques LaMore’s always interesting and entertaining podcast. In the new episode, LaMore—our gracious and congenial host—leads a conversation with David Masciotra, author of the new 33 1/3, Metallica. Listen Here! LaMore…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 108TH 33 1/3 ON  METALLICA, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF METALLICA WEEK BY AUTHOR DAVID MASCIOTRA!  In the sweaty summer of 1990, Metallica opened for Aerosmith in Toronto, Canada at the CNE Fairgrounds. It had been twelve years, but it had passed in what must have seemed like the time it takes to tune a guitar, since James Hetfield would drop the needle on Toys in the Attic, look at his bedroom wall adorned by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and…