Month: April 2016

TO CELEBRATE THE RECENT RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  HANGIN’ TOUGH, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FOURTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK WEEK BY AUTHOR REBECCA WALLWORK! In my book, one of the main factors I consider when exploring why Hangin’ Tough was so successful is the music videos. Blockheads are intimately familiar with each step and breath of these videos for the singles from Hangin’ Tough. But for anyone who isn’t aware of the backstory of the two different videos for the song “Please Don’t Go Girl,”…

TO CELEBRATE THE RECENT RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  HANGIN’ TOUGH, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK WEEK BY AUTHOR REBECCA WALLWORK! Something that surprised me in the research for my book on Hangin’ Tough was the notion that the album’s label, Columbia (part of what was then CBS Records), may not have been 100% supportive of the group—even after they hit it big. Clearly, it took a village of folks at the label to promote and take care of the business of selling…

TO CELEBRATE THE RECENT RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  HANGIN’ TOUGH, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK WEEK BY AUTHOR REBECCA WALLWORK! “New Kids on the Block sucked a lot of dick / Boy-girl groups make me sick.” — Eminem, “Marshall Mathers” The year was 1989 and the U.S. military were trying to force drug lord Manuel Noriega, holed up in the Vatican Embassy in Panama, to surrender. The winning tactic? The psy-ops wonks cranked some obnoxious heavy metal—along with Van Halen and my…

TO CELEBRATE THE RECENT RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  HANGIN’ TOUGH, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK WEEK BY AUTHOR REBECCA WALLWORK! Before New Kids, my friends and I had crushes on boys in higher grades, guys who never gave us the time of day. These five guys from Boston didn’t know who we were either—we lived halfway around the world in Australia—but they appeared on our TV screens professing their love for their fans. They were young enough to still be in school,…

The 33 1/3 team is delighted to announce an upcoming Northside Festival showcase at Rough Trade NYC on June 11th. The Classic Albums Covers Show will feature the stellar talents of Frankie Cosmos, Ava Luna, and Deradoorian; each artist will be covering songs from albums represented in the 33 1/3 series. Here is the specific breakdown of the artists/albums: Frankie Cosmos will play songs from Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. Ava Luna will play songs from Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson. Deradoorian will play songs from Black Sabbath’s Master…

TO CELEBRATE THE RECENT RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  WORKINGMAN’S DEAD, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIFTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF GRATEFUL DEAD WEEK BY AUTHOR BUZZ POOLE! Unlike the bounty of high-quality audio recordings of the Grateful Dead from 1969 and 1970 – the Workingman’s Dead era – decent video footage from that time is slim pickings. If you really want to see songs off this album performed, grainy, sonically warped videos are available, though they are hard to watch. On February 4, 1970, days after being busted in New…

TO CELEBRATE TODAY’S RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  WORKINGMAN’S DEAD, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF GRATEFUL DEAD WEEK BY AUTHOR BUZZ POOLE! Okay, by now you get it – I love Workingman’s Dead and I love the Grateful Dead. My passion isn’t so blinding, however, that I can’t accept that this distinctive body of work isn’t for everyone. But it cannot be ignored.  Between the studio albums – unsurprisingly I find certain virtues in all of them (yes, even Go to Heaven) – and the availability of an…

TO CELEBRATE TOMORROW’S RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  WORKINGMAN’S DEAD, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF GRATEFUL DEAD WEEK BY AUTHOR BUZZ POOLE! Covering the Grateful Dead has been its own cottage industry since before Jerry Garcia died in 1995. Back in 1991, Deadicated featured a cast of seemingly unusual suspects offering up their versions of Dead tunes, including Elvis Costello, Warren Zevon, Suzanne Vega, Burning Spear, and Midnight Oil. (How many of you even remember Midnight Oil?)  The Zen Tricksters are probably the best known of bands that…

TO CELEBRATE THIS WEEK’S RELEASE (APRIL 21st) OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  WORKINGMAN’S DEAD, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF GRATEFUL DEAD WEEK BY AUTHOR BUZZ POOLE! You’re a Deadhead or you aren’t. But unless you are part of the Grateful Dead’s inner circle, no matter how you feel about the band, you are not a “Dead Head.” Asked as an afterthought, figuring it was little more than a matter of editorial inconsistency over decades of usage, Grateful Dead archivist Nicholas Meriwether surprised me with the seriousness of his answer:…

TO CELEBRATE THIS WEEK’S RELEASE (APRIL 21st) OF OUR 33 1/3 ON  WORKINGMAN’S DEAD, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF GRATEFUL DEAD WEEK BY AUTHOR BUZZ POOLE! THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM  GRATEFUL DEAD’S WORKINGMAN’S DEAD. COPYRIGHT © 2016 BY BUZZ POOLE. In 1934, with the publication of American Ballads and Folk Songs, father and son musicologists John and Alan Lomax introduced a whole new body of American music to America, which they continued to document for years thanks to their partnership with the Library of Congress. In 1952, Folkways…