Very sad news yesterday that Laurie Lindeen of Zuzu's Petals died unexpectedly. Laurie started the beloved and pioneering Minneapolis band Zuzu's Petals in the late 80's that led the way to other women-led bands. Laurie was a great writer, mentor to other bands, and was beloved in the Minneapolis music community. She will be missed.
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Loading... R.I.P Karl Wallinger. Formally of the Waterboys but really came into his own in late 80s/early 90s with his band World Party. This song has specific resonance with me because I had broken up with a girl and we were driving in the same car after the breakup happened and this song came on the radio. We both sang the chorus at the top of our lungs and then laughed at the absurdity of it all when the song finished.
(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 10)Loading... Wayne Kramer guitarist of MC5 passed away this past weekend, he is also listed as a co-writer of most of the MC5 catalog. With his passing the only original member still alive is the drummer Dennis Thompson. Coming out of Detroit, MC5 had a short but fiery stint in the late 1960s and definitely could be considered proto-punks. Their live acts were incendiary and the band got in a bunch of trouble for their revolutionary views. Kick out the Jams is definitely a must hear album.
I actually had a one degree separation to Kramer, as a good friend of mine did a documentary on the MC5 that was getting good reviews in the film festival circuit. However, when they wanted to have a more widespread distribution, Kramer wouldn't release the rights to the music without more $$$ and the movie/DVD release languished. My friend and his wife won all court battles but the movie was never released. So he was kinda a dick too. He also threatens Dave with a gun on camera, so that was (not) cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC5:_A_True_Testimonial
Btw, I actually have one of the few non-bootleg copies of the MC5 - A true Testimonial DVD if anyone is ever interested in seeing a copy. The band is quite fascinating and the story was fair and well done.
(1 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)Loading... Lucious Jackson was always one of those bands that I would hear, and think that I gotta check them out more. Alas, I wish I had more, because they're pretty cool. Unfortunately keyboardist and singer Vivian Trimble died last week due to cancer.
(1 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)Loading... Lots of love and sadness for Ric Ocasek, especially for his work with The Cars. I was lucky enough to be in high school when those first two albums came out and they are still active on my playlist. In fact two good high school friends had a “Best Friends Girl” issue way back when and we still joke about it using that song.
Besides fronting The Cars, Ocasek produced 38 albums, some of which were The Cars of course, but a wide variety of others. Researching this post, I discovered he produced two Bad Brains albums, which I find amazing. Those are classic punk albums.
In the GBV world, Ocasek is known for producing Do The Collapse, which was Guided By Voices first foray into a highly produced rock album for a “big” label (Matador). Generally the album was well received and GBV fans have come around to the fact that it’s an album that wasn’t produced on a 4-track in the garage. The only issue that remains today is that Teenage FBI is probably over produced with a weird synthesizer effect that really isn’t needed oh and Hold on Hope was too much of a syrupy ballad. See video below.
Any way, Ric, you were your one weird looking dude who got to marry a super model and made or had a hand in a shit-ton of cool music. Plus you made me post about you instead of the the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road, which is my favorite album of all time. So good for you.
