Blast From The Past: Humble Pie

I remember playing cuts from Rock On and Rockin’ The Fillmore as a college radio DJ, and the several Humble Pie shows I was blessed to witness are seared into my brain. And witness is an operative verb here; while the early shows were piledriver blues/boogie rock’n’roll, in his later years Steve Marriott was part rocker, part [...]

Too Fat To Fish

Summer reading – uncomplicated, light fare, books you can doze off in the middle of and pick up again on the wrong page and nobody cares. Perfect time for most books about musicians and actors and comics, because with few exceptions you can blow through them in a sitting. Depends on how interesting the subject [...]

Under The Radar: The Reefermen

Recorded live at Fifth Avenue Billiards in Royal Oak, Michigan – a stone’s throw from Detroit – this disc captures a superlative group of musicians jamming on some classic rock, funk and blues in majestic fashion. The Reefermen are essentially a power trio plus a harp-wailing front man, and although the material on this live [...]

T.G.I.F. – Ten Timetripping Tunes

Quality won’t be HDTV, folks, but I’m just thanking the higher power that these clips are available at all. These were staples of my teenage diet; I watched these puppies spin around at 45 RPM more often that I can remember, and I still get excited when I hear them. Forty years later, my inner [...]

Blast From The Past: TPOH

Wow…it’s been almost ten years since this greatest hits collection, which gives you an idea how long it’s been since The Pursuit Of Happiness was first climbing the ladder to success. Almost out of the box their classic “I’m An Adult Now” became a smash on college radio (and a cult hit here in the [...]

R.I.P. Ellie, Larry, Ted, Dominick…

I never intended R.I.P. to be a regular feature. Damned if life isn’t forcing my hand.
I’m not one who obsesses over calendars; I don’t have a list of who was born when and who died on any day, but I do have a couple of websites that are easily checked on occasion. The idea about [...]

Stand Up Wit…Joe Bublewicz

 Just like there’s something in the ocean’s waves that make California Girls look so fine, there’s something in the water in New Jersey that breeds funny comics. (Actually, there are a lot of things in the water in New Jersey, from car skeletons to missing government witnesses, but that’s a story for another day). Joe [...]

New Album! Moody Blues

When Woodstock is discussed, one of the anecdotes that most often surfaces is how Crosby, Stills and Nash took the stage in front of a mammoth crowd in only their second live gig, and as per the famous quote, were “scared shitless“. Odd to think that a year later and an ocean away, a studio-oriented band like The [...]

Fuzztopia!

I just got an email from Scott Hueston of Wicked Cool Records and Little Steven’s Underground Garage announcing their new project Fuzztopia. Looks like they are trying to create a shared portal where rock fans and musicians can create a directory of cool clubs, record stores, bars and bands – a reference tool created with [...]

Blast From The Past: Andy Breckman

Many of you might recognize Andy Breckman as the creator of the long-running series Monk, a show that puts a unique twist on the standard detective formula. Perhaps you also know his work as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live and David Letterman, where his offbeat skits included Eddie Murphy’s “White Like Me”. He’s [...]