Gary Pig Gold with AXES: BOLD As JIMI’S

On what could have been – should have been – James Marshall Hendrix’s 78th Birthday on the 27th we pay, and play, due tribute to he …and these other supreme six-stringers:

Gary Pig Gold – VERA RAMONE and her POISONED HEART

Over-intellectualizing about a subject as pure and simple in its perfection as the Ramones sort of defeats their entire purpose, now doesn’t it? The proverbial “dancing about architecture,” as Steve Martin (by way of Frank Zappa) might well say.

Consequently, I’ve shied away from most books and studies concerning Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Co. that have appeared over the years. So when a copy of Vera Ramone King’s Poisoned Heart came my way, I cracked it open with a wee bit of trepidation, I do admit.

Gary Pig Gold Most Fondly Remembers Our Pal Joey

 

Late one night in very late 1976, a singer acquaintance of mine burst into the (condemned) house I was then sharing with the neighbourhood bar band, shouting “You will never believe what I just saw in Toronto tonight! These four guys with Brian Jones haircuts wearing drainpipe Levis, singing all these really fast, short songs. Lots of ’em, too! And the best part? NO GUITAR SOLOS!”

Cameron Carpenter – 10 CC – Faceoff

My god Facebook can be an ugly little sandbox to play in. It seems populated by narcissistic bullies who feel it is their right to yell as loudly as possible about what their beliefs are and try to shame you into seeing things their way. There is no compromise, there is no fear of repercussions, and there is little or no consideration of other’s feelings. If it was a bar I walked in to I wouldn’t even order a drink.

Roxanne Tellier – On The Occasion of Robert Segarini’s Birthday

Started writing these reminiscing’s on Friday morning, as the world awoke to the dawning of our Fearless Leaders 70th year on the planet. Trying to finish writing them while still nursing the remnants of a hangover, 48 hours after the Birthday Boy’s bash.

For Friends of Bob (aka … FOB’s)

JAIMIE VERNON – GODS OF THE HAMMER

Frank Gutch Jr: My Journey As Brought To You By…..

The Corona School of Writing, Weinhard’s Private Reserve, record labels (major and independent) and just about everyone I have ever really known.  So I sit here quaffing the ice cold Weinhard, waiting for that writing buzz and wondering where I will go with this because I have no real idea where I am going, only where I have been.  I have been lucky, lucky like I cannot believe, but not lucky of my own making.  I have been surrounded by good people— no, people more than good— and it is time I pay tribute to those and those things which have made me who I am.

Justin Smallbridge: New York City Noise

All the sins blamed on “disco” (such as it was at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s) — cocaine, amyl nitrate, sexually transmitted disease, The Ritchie Family, Andy Gibb — are nothing compared to the ugliness of “Disco Sucks.” The stigma’s so powerful that even now, nobody would dare call it disco. It was “house” for a while, and these days people call it “EDM,” a clumsy catch-all acronym that stands for “electronic dance music,” although it sounds more like another disco-era sexually transmitted disease. (“I’m sorry, but the only remedy for EDM is a series of painful injections, taking this foul-smelling tincture six times a day and applying this stinky salve to the affected area…”)

JAIMIE VERNON – A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

I can’t help thinking about New York right now. They were part of a long, sweeping plan by an angry Mother Nature to be stamped out by hurricane Sandy. They weren’t the only ones. The eastern US seaboard was targeted and subsequently attacked with a weather system unseen since, well, hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf coast not that long ago. That storm destroyed my favourite city in the world – New Orleans. Now Sandy has destroyed my second favourite city – New York. That’s not to take away from the devastation in New Jersey or those who lost their lives on the replica of the HMS Bounty that sank off the coast of the Carolinas. Those stories remain sobering as do the deaths of those people, mostly on Staten Island, killed in the wake of the ocean’s fury.

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock – Missing Music Venues

Let’s continue our journey of missing musical venues. We were (and still are) very fortunate in and around Toronto at the amount of great clubs at our disposal. Some of the best (and worst) are long gone. When all of these clubs were at their heights beer was cheap and usually sold in ten ounce glasses by the tray and there was outrage when the price of cigarettes went up to a dollar in the cigarette machines. The air was thick with smoke and the stale scent of smoke and beer soaked carpets hit you like a ton of bricks when you walked thru the door.