Shrinkage

Rolling Stone jumps into a cold pool:

Some packages like the curvaceous old Coke bottle become so iconic that they are recognizable at 30 paces. So it is with Rolling Stone, whose large format has stood out on magazine racks for more than three decades. It won’t for much longer, however. With the Oct. 30 issue, which will go on sale Oct. 17, Rolling Stone, published by Wenner Media, will adopt the standard size used by all but a few magazines.

In an interview in his office, Jann Wenner, founder, publisher, editor and general guiding force behind the nation’s biggest music magazine, was characteristically brash about the change. Leaning back in his chair, one leg slung over the side of it, he said, “All you’re getting from that large size is nostalgia.”

Interestingly, further down in the article it says that the average age of the readership of Rolling Stone is in their early 30's...I would have guessed older although I'm 29 and I subscribe.

P.S. Rollingstone.com has a great archive of all the covers they've ever printed...

A Resolution

In Support of the Stone Temple Pilots song "Vasoline" being named the All-Time Grunge Anthem

Whereas, Stone Temple Pilots have reunited and will be touring the 2008 summer festivals, AND

Whereas, Stone Temple Pilots best album was Purple, AND

Whereas, the best song on Purple was "Vasoline," AND

Whereas, "Vasoline" starts of with that cool reverb humming, AND

Whereas, the lyrics of "Vasoline" are vague and yet important sounding [like every good grunge song], AND

Whereas, "Vasoline" has one of the best opening guitar riffs in history, AND

Whereas, "Vasoline" includes such great lyrical snippets as "blow a kiss and tried to take it home," "it has rendered me punch drunk and without bail," and "you'll eat the lies," AND

Whereas, "Vasoline" has one of the greatest videos ever made, AND

Whereas, the video includes folk dancers in lederhossen, clowns dancing, and Scott Weiland at his most healthy looking, AND

Whereas, it has Scott Weiland doing that weird dance with the cane, AND



Whereas, if Nirvana were The Beatles and Pearl Jam was The Rolling Stones, the surely Stone Temple Pilots would be The Who or maybe the Kinks, AND

Whereas, suicide should not be celebrated, AND

Be it resolved that, Stone Temple Pilots' song "Vasoline" will be considered the All-Time Grunge Anthem.

Stone Temple Pilots -- Vasoline
From the Purple album.

Happy Birthday CS

Happy Birthday Buddy!


Jens Lekman -- Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa
From the When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog.

The Beatles -- Birthday
From The White Album.

The Sugarcubes -- Birthday
From the The Great Crossover Potential collection.

Sound Team -- No More Birthdays
From the Movie Monster album.

A Day in the Life

Last week, I wrote about my yearning to have an American Idol contestant sing “A Day in the Life.” Well AI decided to have another week of Lennon/McCartney songs and wouldn’t you know it, Michael Johns decided to tackle “A Day in the Life.”

Judge for yourself:



The Beatles – A Day in the Life
From the Sgt. Pepper’s album.

The Beatles – A Day in the Life
From the Anthology 2 album.

The Beatles – A Day in the Life
This is a demo alternative version.

The Beatles – A Day in the Life
From the LOVE remix album.

Captain – A Day in the Life (The Beatles cover)
This is from a Mojo Magazine compilation Sgt. Peppers...With a Little Help From His Friends

Jeff Beck – A Day in the Life (The Beatles cover)
From the In My Life collection of Beatles covers.

Beatles + American Idol = ?

Each year I typically watch about five episodes of a given American Idol season and that is typically broken down to three episodes of the initial auditions/embarrassments and two episodes of the best of the best singing...This week's episode fell into the second category as I was interested to hear the song choices and dream of what could be as the group sang Lennon/McCartney songs...

Here are the songs the 12 remaining selected:

1. "Got to Get You Into My Life"
2. "She's A Woman"
3. "In My Life"
4. "If I Fell"
5. "Come Together"
6. "Eleanor Rigby"
7. "Let It Be"
8. "You Can't Do That"
9. "Across the Universe"
10. "Eight Days A Week"
11. "We Can Work It Out"
12. "I Saw Her Standing There"

Not a bad group...some classics and some really, really, really bad/odd choices..."She's a Woman" and "You Can't Do That"????? Yeesh.

So I made my own list of songs that I would have loved to hear them sing...and because this week's show only focused on Lennon/McCartney songs I won't choose Harrison's "My Guitar Gently Weeps" or Starr's "Octopus's Garden."

1. "Rain" -- To me it is the ultimate b-side and if one of the 12 sang it this week, I would have actually called in and voted for them.

2. "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" -- First off, this would be the extended Anthology version and not the shorter edited version...and what would be better than selecting a non-song to sing in a singing contest...

3. "Run For Your Life" -- My far the most disturbing Beatles song and it would have been an interesting juxtaposition from all the boot-licking Ryan Seacrest was doing about how great Lennon/McCartney were/are...and then a would be Idol contestant rips into the lyrics "I would rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man"...it would have been priceless TV.

4. "A Day In The Life" -- The most important Beatles song [not the best mind you and just a hair ahead of "Tomorrow Never Knows"] deserves to be more popular in the Beatles canon and what better way to do that than to have the next Sanjia sing it. It would also require the in-house band to earn their money...

5. "And Your Bird Can Sing" -- I select his one for completely selfish reasons as it is my favorite Beatles song and it is just nice to hear every once in a while.

"Rain" can be found on the Past Masters, Volume 2 collection. "Run For Your Life" can be found on Rubber Soul. "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" are found on Revolver. The version of "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" referenced above can be found on Anthology 2 Disc 2. Lastly, "A Day in the Life" concludes the Sgt. Pepper's album.

New Matthew Sweet

I am a huge Matthew Sweet fan and some of the most fun I have ever had at a concert was seeing Matthew play at 1st Avenue in Minneapolis. So I was excited to hear that there is a new Matthew Sweet song floating around out there on a collection called Songs from the Bigtop. It is the soundtrack to the film The Bigtop and includes songs by The Clientele, The Owls, and Damien Jurado. I have enjoyed it over the past couple of days...and you don't have to take my word for it as Pitchfork gave it a positive review as well.

Matthew Sweet -- Wild
From the Songs from the Bigtop soundtrack.

Matthew Sweet -- Superdeformed
From the classic No Alternative collection.

Matthew Sweet -- She Said, She Said (The Beatles cover)

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs -- Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young cover)
From the Under the Covers, Volume 1 album.

Jim Croce

Now that Led Zeppelin and the former Beatles' solo albums are available digitally and The Beatles albums may someday really, actually, probably, maybe will be available on iTunes in the future can it be that one of the biggest holes in the digital libraries are the albums of....Jim Croce?!? There is one live album available, Have You Heard Jim Croce Live, but none of his studio albums are out on either iTunes or Amazon.

Where are we supposed to get our "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" fix?

My favorite Croce song by far is "Operator" mainly because it has none of the comic almost-Shel Silverstein-like "Boy Named Sue" quality to it as in "...Leroy Brown" and "You Don't Mess Around With Jim." It is just a sad song about a guy who got dumped.

Jim Croce -- Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
From The Complete Collection collection.

Jim Croce -- Operator (Live)
From the Have You Heard Jim Croce Live CD.

Hill

I really love this Beatles cover...What more do you need?

Aretha Franklin -- The Fool on the Hill (The Beatles Cover)
This is from the Rare and Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul.

New Easy Street Records Mural

Ben Harper -- Strawberry Fields Forever (Beatles Cover)

Be sure to buy your Ben Harper Belt Buckle here.

Vacation Mini-Mix

I have a lot more time with my mp3 player during this past week of vacation than I do when I am at work or school and I have been enjoying some stuff that I haven't listened to in a while...here's a sample of what I'm talking about...

Oasis -- Eyeball Tickler (Rare b-side)

Embrace -- Keeping

The Smithereens -- I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles Cover)

Patton Oswalt -- At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas With A Shovel

Buy Oasis, Embrace, The Smitherereens, and Patton Oswalt CDs here.

Presidential Brief: Locksley -- Don't Make Me Wait

Artist: Locksley
Title: Don't Make Me Wait
Label: Feature Records
Release Date: 1/9/07

Rating: Harry Truman

I don't know very many bands that strive to be the early Beatles. Everyone and their mother wants to be Revolver era or Sgt. Peppers era Beatles not Meet the Beatles...well I guess except The Smithereens...

On the other hand, no one ever wants to be a later era Kinks...everyone wants to be early Kinks...no band ever started by learning every note of Sleepwalker...

Locksley debut album fills the early Beatles void nicely...and they should seriously consider suing The Kooks for sound infringement..."Don't Make Me Wait" is the first and best song and things start rolling from there. By the time you reach "The Past and the Present" (Track 8 of 13) you feel like like only a few moments have gone by.