Cameron Carpenter: Rock’n’Roll Rewind – Rating The Records

This week we rewind to 1977 and the first issue of Shades Magazine. My feature was a re-cap of all the new punk records that had been released.

“I realize a lot of the material I’m going to cover is somewhat dated, but this being the first edition, I thought I’d quickly go over some of the best new music to come out over the past few months. Next month’s reviews will be much longer and in-depth.”

Jaimie Vernon: K-TEL HELL: MUSICAL TEAM-UPS WE’D LIKE TO SEE

With the advent of celebrity musical team-ups to help sell more downloads in this unpredictable business we now find ourselves in, I thought maybe we could do this for all lapsed and flagging music artists past and present. Here, for your bemusement, is a wish list of team-ups for the musically twisted compiled by yours truly and partner in crime Terry Lusk. Enjoy

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock’n’Roll – U Oughta Know

 

I don’t know if we are on vacation this week or not but a column in hand is worth two on the hard drive. Hard to tell where I am in the alphabet right now but I think U will work as I wrote about television last week.

Now U is not the most rock’n’roll letter in the alphabet and the list of band names is pretty low. Many would argue that the world’s greatest band, U2, makes up for the lack of overall U numbers but I would disagree. Outside of “I Will Follow” and a couple of good moments on “The Joshua Tree” I never was really taken with the band, or their sound.

Cameron Carpenter: Listing The ABC’s Of Rock’n’Roll – A is For Album Covers

Kids today will never know the joy of endlessly browsing in a record store with no set agenda. The hours that were happily wasted on Saturday afternoons at Sam The Record Man, Records On Wheels, A&A’s or The Record Peddler are immeasurable. It was time well spent.  CD shopping is just not the same and digital shopping/hunting is an aural and not visual experience. The album cover was a great size, 12” X 12” (versus the miniscule 5” X 5” of a CD).  An album cover could capture your attention, demand you to pick it up and read the back for the vital information which would or would not persuade you to shell out your six or seven dollars.

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’S Of Rock – U

O Y this week I have an I on U.

Ultravox! (Not to be confused with Ultravox. Well maybe a little)

I feel sorry for those who never got the chance to discover a band on the strength of their album cover alone. You would walk in to a record shop, grab the new releases you came for, spend a good 20 minutes thumbing through the delete bins (for your 99 cent specials) and then graze the racks for something that caught your eye, The graphic was so big, and the information on the back was readable so you could usually get a decent indication of what the artist was all about.