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14 December 2011The Rabid In The Kennel Top 10 Farewell Countdown!
All good things must come to an end, and Rabid In The Kennel is no exception. And so it is with sadness and pride that we present our final episode today, Wednesday, December 14, 2011. As a special treat to our loyal listeners, we present the very best, most memorable performances from our two-and-a-half years of monthly shows on BreakThruRadio.com!
7 December 2011Big Takeover #69 Out Now! Great Holiday Gifts! Order - Subscribe - Renew
Good news! Big Takeover #69 Fall 2011 issue with Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls on the cover is out on the stands! And there’s still time for the perfect holiday gift: Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues! Plus six new children’s sizes for our T-Shirts in three colors, as well as our new Big Takeover Accessories (Beer Cozies, Buttons, and Magnets!) and (signed if you like) Color 30th Anniversary Festival Posters! What a way to say “Happy Holidays?!”
30 October 2011This month on Rabid In The Kennel: '60s stars The Left Banke!
Check out the ’60s baroque pop living legends The Left Banke’s live in the studio session from Brooklyn’s fabulous Kennel Studio, as well as a pleasant, historic, and highly fascinating, 30-minute interview with me, Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid with original members, bassist/vocalist Tom Finn and drummer/vocalist George Cameron. You won’t regret it!
The Left Banke, “Pretty Ballerina” [Live At The Kennel] by Rabid In The Kennel
17 September 2011This month on Rabid In The Kennel: ex-Mutton Birds star Don McGlashan!
Check out the New Zealand living legend Don McGlashan’s live in the studio session from Brooklyn’s fabulous Kennel Studio, as well as a pleasant, humorous, good 30-minute interview with me, Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid. You won’t regret it!
2 September 2011The Joy Formidable - Bootleg Vol. 1 EP (live) (Joy Formidable U.K.)
When the world’s greatest young band vends a hot, merch table-only live EP, wallets come out, and trifles like a playing order out of synch with the track listing matter not.
2 September 2011The Beach Arabs - Under the Whale (The Beach Arabs)
This noisy jangle pop hits like some demented lo-fi garage band attempting to break into the paisley underground.
18 August 2011This month on Rabid In The Kennel: Low Water!
A great band from right here in Brooklyn, USA. Listen now!
19 July 2011Rare show (in New York) by '60s legends The Left Banke before our Rabid in the Kennel Session!
For those New Yorkers who missed the first Left Banke shows in decades as Joe’s Pub in March, see them tonight, Wednesday, July 20, at Littlefield in Brooklyn.
13 July 2011Big Takeover 68 cover stars, Brooklyn greats The Pains of Being Pure at Heart on Rabid in the Kennel!
It’s an invigorating, absolutely smashing live-in-studio session with our current issue 68 cover stars—yes, it’s the Brooklyn indie-rock band powerhouse The Pains of Being Pure at Heart! Hurrah! Can you tell we are excited? Click through to learn more and download a free MP3 from the session!
10 July 2011Big Takeover 30th Anniversary Show Video
It is with immense pleasure that we present the first three of many planned releases of documentary video shot by David Urbano and the Review Stalker blog during the Big Takeover 30th anniversary concerts, which took place nearly a year ago at The Bell House in Brooklyn.
21 June 2011Big Takeover #68 Out Now!
Good news! Big Takeover #68 Spring 2011 issue with Brooklyn’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart on the cover, Best Coast, and concluding part twos of our awesome Teenage Fanclub & Iggy Pop of Iggy & the Stooges (part 2), interviews, as well as fabulous history interviews with The Left Banke, Buffalo Tom, Motorhead’s Lemmy, Wanda Jackson, R.E.M., and the reunited Swans is out on the stands! Click through for a full description of its contents, including several juicy sample quotes!
19 February 2011Darryl Jenifer (Bad Brains)
“It felt like a natural progression for me to explore and experiment with dub based ideas in my O.G’ness, but I have always been a fan of rebel music, all music.”
10 February 2011The Depreciation Guild's final studio recording now playing on Rabid In The Kennel
This month on Rabid in the Kennel, we offer a particularly historic session with departing Brooklyn dreampop/shoegaze band The Depreciation Guild.
8 February 2011The Static Minds - Electricity (Custom Made)
They play together like devils, and shake like “The American Ruse,” “The Human Being Lawnmower,” and “Sister Anne” are the bible, and they’re fire and brimstone preachers.
8 February 2011Elliott Smith - An Introduction to… (Kill Rock Stars)
Introduction lays out in stark terms what we lost at knifepoint in an L.A. bathroom, October 21, 2003. The guy was so real he still hurts.
8 February 2011Lisa Savidge - Lisa Savidge (Black Cactus)
Phoenix five-some Lisa Savidge dig shoegaze/dreampop’s dense guitar majesty, offering intermittent, beautifully breathtaking, mountain-peak clusters of cascading cacophony—but those are mere passages.
4 February 2011Jack's 2010 Year-End Picks
Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid picks his 50 best new albums for 2010, along with 10 best singles and 20 best reissues!
17 January 2011Various - No Future: Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned Tribute Album (Released Emotions U.K.)
This collection, much of which (or all of which, perhaps) appeared on previous Released Emotions tributes to these three bands, is a hit and mostly miss affair.
17 January 2011David Westlake - Play Dusty For Me (Angular)
Sit down for the whole hour and 18 songs and take in the charming, lightly perfumed, but soulful air.
17 January 2011Vir - Gillespie (Vibraphone)
Blindfolded, I’d not be certain that Mr. Sloane was not Bono, so much does he sing and sound like him.
17 January 2011The Tellers - Hands Full of Ink (62TV/00:02:59)
Anyone out there miss the Libertines U.K.? One could slip this album into the player at your next party and easily convince all in attendance that this is their new third LP.
17 January 2011T.Rex - The Slider (Fat Possum)
Though it’s surprising to see this 1972 smash hit record reissued on an indie, that says more about the state of the music business nowadays than about the quality of this recording or the band.
17 January 2011Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - Under the Covers, Vol. 2 (Shout Factory)
Their succinct, unerring taste has slipped big-time this time ‘round.
17 January 2011Bobby Steele - Bobby (Post Mortem)
As someone who has known and enjoyed Mr. Steele’s work for 31 years now, it’s nevertheless hard to say what the point of this short, eight-song covers album is.
17 January 2011Frank Sinatra - September of My Years (Concord)
Horribly over-praised in its time, 1965’s September is an alpha male prematurely facing a far-off mortality, expressing an overly sentimental melancholy over lost youth.
17 January 2011The Sea of Bees - Songs For the Ravens (Crossbill)
I’ve been hearing this sort of lushly lulling female vocalist for a long time. Tired of it I’m not!
17 January 2011Screaming’ Cyn Cyn & the Pons - Damn, Girl (Crustacean)
The lyrics are outrageously nutty, often embarrassingly frankly funny, and the post-punk attack is as herky-jerky, unpredictable, and sometimes as outright insane as the words.
17 January 2011Robert Scott - Ends Run Together (Flying Nun NZ)
Despite being a key member of three of the most important New Zealand bands ever, The Clean, Magick Heads, and his prime singer/songwriting vehicle The Bats, it’s safe to say that Scott is still one of the more underrated singer/songwriters of the last 30 years.
17 January 2011Nick Rosen - Into the Sky (Porter)
This young L.A. multi-instrumentalist jazz cat has cut chops working with various jazz legends, among them Bennie Maupin , Arthur Blythe , and Henry Grimes.
17 January 2011Haroula Rose - These Open Roads (Haroula Rose)
Rose is a striking-looking, brunette-haired L.A. newcomer with Chicago roots that needs little more than her chords and harmoniously honey voice to make her lyrics dig in on her debut, even on initial encounter.
17 January 2011The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band - The Wages (SideoneDummy)
If you’re looking for more punk rock from SideoneDummy, would you accept the kind that goes back 80 years instead of 35?
17 January 2011Otis Redding & His Orchestra - Live on the Sunset Strip (double cd) (Stax/Concord)
When one finally deals with what’s here as opposed to what one would truly love, Live on the Sunset Strip is a genuinely sweaty, hard-working, exciting sounding, wonderfully recorded, must-have.
17 January 2011Peggy Sue - Fossils and Other Phantoms (Yep Roc)
Although this two-girl, one boy trio are from Brighton in the south coast of England, they sound more like something on Nebraska’s Saddle Creek label—not a zillion miles removed from Azure Ray and Mynabirds, et al.
17 January 2011Patrick Park - Come What Will (Badman)
As the decades pass, it’s amazing how each generation mints a new round of artists who remind of the early ‘70s Neil Young.
17 January 2011Mark Olson - Many Colored Kite (Ryko)
If the theme of 2010 was an absolute plethora of inspired albums by people who’d been making them for decades, not a handful of years, you can go ahead and add this one to that pleasant development.
17 January 2011Allison Moorer - Crows (Ryko)
Typically described as an alt-country star, her latest barely betrays such nomenclature, bearing up instead as a folk pop and soft singer-songwriter rock foray, with only minor country inflections.
17 January 2011Math and Physics Club - I Shouldn’t Look as Good as I Do (Matinee)
On the Seattle trio’s second LP, they are trying to answer the question no one was asking, namely, “Does the world need an American Belle & Sebastian?”
17 January 2011Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can (Virgin)
I confess, I find Ms. Marling’s prodigious, precocious talent and her back-story more consuming than her actual albums.
17 January 2011Tim Lee 3 - Raucous Americanus (double CD) (Cool Dog Sound)
Most double LPs are “sprawling,” but this isn’t; it’s focused on tough, catchy, old fashioned roots-rock, with southern blues and R&B flavors.
17 January 2011Husband & Wife - Proud Flesh (XRA)
But how pleasantly big a surprise to find that they’ve kept their challenging, moody guitar rock base, yet totally overhauled the formula, pumping up the volume into a five times heavier, louder, denser, more pulsating framework!
17 January 2011Household Names - Stories, No Names (Household Names)
Hopes and expectations don’t always pan out.
17 January 2011Hauschka - Foreign Landscapes (FatCat)
You wonder who at the label had the temerity to sign and promote German composer Volker Bertelmann , a pianist by trade whose classical chamber music bears no hint of rock whatsoever, as if it had never been invented.
17 January 2011Half-Handed Cloud - As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-Out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth (Asthmatic Kitty)
Berkeley CA’s John Ringhofer must have ADD. His fifth LP for Asthmatic Kitty is a study in “get in, get out, do your business… and run away before anyone gets a clue of what you’re up to!”
17 January 2011The Gurus - Closing Circles (Rainbow Quartz)
This Barcelona band’s fourth LP still sounds a lot more like they’re an American band out of Los Angeles clubs than anything that might bear their true Castilian markings.
17 January 2011Matt Gouette - Emeline at the Moon Tower (Cosmodemonic Telegraph)
Singer/songwriter Gouette is a staple of the busy New London, CT scene and its documenting Cosmo label, appearing on its various scene compilations, and issuing three singles and now two LPs for the imprint.
17 January 2011Electric Jellyfish - Electric Jellyfish EP (Twin Lakes)
While one would want to avoid an electric jellyfish while swimming, not so the band of that name.
17 January 2011David Dondero - # Zero With a Bullet (Team Love)
The seventh installment of Dondero’s solo career finds the old hand Austin, TX folkie as ever mining that bittersweet intersection—can we call it the crossroads?—where ancient Dixie folk, blues, and country pop meet and have a shot of White Lightning at the local saloon.
17 January 2011The Distractions - Black Velvet EP (Occultation U.K.)
Having just reviewed this reformed band’s new EP, here’s the other one also released this year—although in this case, the recordings date from the late ‘70s Manchester band’s first revival, back in 1995, but they were unissued until now.
17 January 2011The Distractions - Come Home EP (Occultation U.K.)
The trend of bands from the late ‘70s/’80s reforming and doing work that doesn’t embarrass their halcyon days continues!
17 January 2011Dirty Filthy Mugs - All Yobs In (DC Jam)
Although this is the debut LP (following some 2009 EPs) by an L.A. street punk band, they sure want to be an early ‘80s English Oi! Band.
17 January 2011Dash Dip Rock - Call of the Wild (Alternative Tentacles)
If you’re throwing a shindig any time soon, this pioneering 26-year New Orleans country-punk trio led by Bill Davis (the sole original member) wants to be invited.
17 January 2011Dick Dale - Guitar Legend: The Very Best Of (Shout! Factory)
Fifty-five years is a hell of a long career (albeit with several long breaks for serious illness and injury), but few have earned it more richly than Dale.
17 January 2011Chatham County Line - Wildwood (Yep Roc)
The hardest trick for a roots-rock/pop, americana, or alt.country band is to take something that’s that traditional—what’s a hundred years?—and try to make it sound contemporary instead of boringly old-timey, like a singing group playing on Disney’s fake-as-folksy Main Street.
17 January 2011Ray Charles - Rare Genius: the Undiscovered Masters (Concord)
Though the excuse for this release is the 80th anniversary of Charles birth, none is needed for an artist of whom the tag “genius” really wasn’t and still isn’t a stretch.
17 January 2011Caspian - You Are the Conductor (The Mylene Sheath)
I lavished deserved praise on this Beverly, MA (greater Boston) instrumental group’s The Four Trees double album debut three years ago, this CD reissue of the group’s 2005 debut EP is more of the same only even more commanding!
17 January 2011Tom Bolton - Dreaming and Dancing (Tom Bolton)
When last we heard from this Aussie folkpop singer three years ago on When I Cross the River , our own Mark Suppanz was comparing his delicate grace and involved guitar playing to Tim Buckley and Nick Drake.
17 January 2011Blue Water White Death - Blue Water White Death (Graveface)
I remember seeing the stunning 1971 documentary Blue Water White Death sometime in the ‘80s, both fascinated and for many weeks haunted by incredible underwater photographer Peter Gimbel ’s death-defying images of the monster Great White Sharks off of Australia’s barrier reefs.
17 January 2011Blue Giant - Blue Giant (Vanguard)
This debut LP chronicles the two-year gestation of Viva Voce ’s two songwriter/musicians, Kevin Robinson and Anita Robinson ’s attempt to form a side-band country-rock supergroup.
17 January 2011Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth (Hometapes)
The well-meaning gent that suggested I try this band called them “prog-psych,” which, to these ears promised a paring of “Pictures of Matchstick Men” Status Quo with Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway . I.e., 1968 meets 1974.
17 January 2011Rusty Anderson - Born on Earth (Oxide/Red/MRI)
Anderson is one of the two younger guitarists/backing singers that have kicked Paul McCartney in the ass since they joined his touring band in 2001 (the other being Brian Ray ).
17 January 2011A Balladeer - Where Are You Bambi Woods? (Zip)
With an album title (and title track) like this, and other tunes such as “Superman Can’t Move His Legs,” “Jesus Doesn’t Love Me,” and “Dead as Disco,” you might expect Where to be a funny album.
13 January 2011Now Playing: Joy Formidable, Live and Interviewed, on Rabid in the Kennel!
Now airing on Rabid In The Kennel: The Joy Formidable, the mighty, Welsh/English band led by kick-ass Ritzy Bryan (guitar/vocals), who will soon release their first full length LP The Big Roar , joins me for a laugh-filled interview and an enchanting performance with bandmates Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Thomas (drums), both of whom also take part in the interview.
7 January 2011Big Takeover Feted in Lovely, Long, Fervent Review on KEXP Radio Blog Essay!
“This is bourbon and fireside rock criticism, and yet it’s as up to date and ‘on it’ as any blog or website you’ll read tomorrow. If you ever wished that Pitchfork was more tied into the original regional-aesthetic based, beguiled but no-BS root of the heralded rock press (CREEM, Crawdaddy), then The Big Takeover is your last great read on slick, shiny paper. It is not just another music publication, it is possibly the only one left.”
9 December 2010Big Takeover #67 Out Now!
Good news! Big Takeover #67 Fall 2010 issue with Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub on the cover and concluding part twos of our awesome interviews with The Ramones (a previously unpublished 1992 interview), For Against, ’70s Vancouver punks Subhumans Canada, and Graham Nash on The Hollies, is out on the stands! A full description of its contents, including several juicy sample quotes, is just below!
1 October 2010"Best of the New Breed, Vol. 2" now on Rabid In The Kennel!
“Rabid In The Kennel” appeared for the first time in a month starting September 15 with our second installment of our special new wrinkle for our established format we first aired in August, by presenting all music and no chat with seven more up-and-coming, less established, but equally deserving new bands, which we have called “Best of the New Breed, Vol 2.” Check out Baltimore’s The Seldon Plan, and New York’s own Golden Bloom, Anthem In, Edward Rogers, Jeff Litman (pictured), and Tiny Animals!
21 August 2010Visqueen live in the studio (and interviewed) and "Best of the New Breed, Vol. 1" now on Rabid In The Kennel!
“Rabid In The Kennel” appeared on Bastille Day with a very special guest: the one and only Visqueen, playing a special, drummer-less session for us in support of their awesome recent LP , A Message to Garcia, and then the members, including dashing, powerful-throated singer Rachel Flotard, sat for a long 35-minute chat, including lots of funny sexual innuendo.
More recently, we tried a special new wrinkle on our established format, by presenting all music and no chat with seven less established, but equally deserving new bands, called “Best of the New Breed, Vol 1.” This began airing just last week!
11 July 2010Welcome to the new Bigtakeover.com!
On behalf of all of us here at bigtakeover.com and Big Takeover Magazine, I bid you welcome to our newly redesigned site! Looks cool, doesn’t it? Our print magazine is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, going back to a good 15 years or so before there was any electronic media. So the timing is perfect. Our endeavor has come a long, long way from the days of typing, Xeroxing, reducing, stapling, folding, mailing, shipping, and selling at gigs, and we are celebrating this long three decades of service and commentary in three distinct ways this year.
11 July 2010Big Takeover #66 (Special 30th Anniversary Issue) is in stores now!
We only come out twice a year, every Spring and Fall, so you don’t want to miss one of our jam-packed 192-page issues! Read on for a quick description of the new issue’s contents.
4 July 2010The Big Takeover 30th Anniversary Festival & Party At The Bell House, Brooklyn, July 30-31, 2010!
Come help us celebrate our milestone, the last weekend of this month! Sixteen bands, with S.F. punk legends The Avengers and Chameleons U.K. leader Mark Burgess headlining!
9 June 2010Adam Franklin (Swervedriver, etc.) live in the studio (and interviewed) now on Rabid In The Kennel!
He’s singing songs solo acoustic live in the studio from his new third solo LP and he sits for a 35-minute chat.
13 May 2010Big Takeover #66 About to Ship (Special 30th Anniversary Issue)
Once again the big news is that Big Takeover SPECIAL 30TH ANNIVERSARY Spring 2010 issue #66 with Spoon on the cover was completed in San Francisco in April!
4 May 2010Guest live review: Ray Davies in Chicago!
The 88’s Adam Merrin pounded his red piano with obvious glee during “David Watts,” and Keith Slettedahl took a verse alongside his hero Davies with transparent pride. It seemed that The 88 were engaged not only to serve arena standards like the grinding “Low Budget,” but also had an influence in selecting deeper cuts. “This is a song for the end times,” announced Davies when introducing “Dead End Street,” buoyed by the snap and swing of 88 drummer Anthony Zimmitti . Bassist Todd O’Keefe dug into Pete Quaife ’s jaunty bass line and gave a throaty howl for the chorus.
12 March 2010Leatherface live in the studio (and interviewed) now on Rabid In The Kennel!
“Rabid In The Kennel” appears for the first time in a month with a very special guest: the one and only Leatherface, the greatest punk rock band of the last 20 years, all the way from Sunderland, England! Singing songs from their new LP The Stormy Petrel and their 1991 classic LP Mush!
Visit Breakthru Radio now to hear my exclusive interview with the band’s singer/guitarist Frankie N. W. Stubbs and recently returned original guitarist Dickie Hammond (who, it must be said, formed one of the most hilarious 1-2 punch comedy teams I have had the pleasure to referee in some time), and their live performance at The Kennel Studio in Brooklyn! And you can click on this link and listen to it any day, at any time, at your leisure!
10 February 2010Paul Collins live in the studio (and interviewed) now on Rabid In The Kennel --debut show today!!!! Listen anytime!!! (Alina Simone next)
Big news! Rabid In The Kennel debuts as its own show today with a very special guest: Paul Collins of The Nerves and The Beat!
Visit BreakThru Radio now to hear my exclusive interview with Paul and his live performance at The Kennel Studio in Brooklyn! Click on this story and the link is included, and you can listen to it any day, at any time, at your leisure!
13 January 2010Guest interview: TSOL singer Jack Grisham (and His Humanitarian Efforts)!
Got this excellent interview with TSOL founder/frontman Jack Grisham from our contributor Jeff Alexander and wanted to share it with you!
26 December 200917 Bonus Reviews, Here Only; Don't Forget the New Issue 65; 2009 Wrapup show this Monday on Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com
Now that the X-mas rush is over, I wanted to post 17 bonus reviews that I had intended to include in the current issue 65, but ran out of time running up against that issue’s deadline. / Make sure you tune in this coming Monday, the 28th to the weekly Big Takeover radio show at Breakthruradio.com, as I will be hosting a 2009 wrap-up, a countdown show of my 20 favorite albums of 2009 in reverse order, one song each. / Just a reminder to check out the new issue 65 of Big Takeover with the smokin’ live shot of Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth on the cover!
15 December 2009Reminder: Big Takeover Still Time For X-mas Gifts - The Perfect Holiday Gift! / Issue #65 Out! / Sample quotes!
Just a reminder that there’s still time for the perfect X-mas gift: Big Takeover magazine! Our brand new Fall/Winter issue 65 with the Sonic Youth cover is out on the stands (the Thurston Moore live action cover shot is to your left, and a description of its contents is below!), in case you want to treat yourself (you little devil!). Or indeed, if you want a holiday gift subscription for your friends or family whom you think would enjoy our pages (or one of our t-shirts, or any of our back issues, or our CDs), either way you can still order on our secure online store with Visa or Master Card by clicking on “SUBSCRIBE NOW” to your left!!! Just let us know in the “comments” section of the order form that the order is for X-mas (why not write, in all caps, “RUSH! THIS IS FOR X-MAS!”), and we will be glad to send the package by priority mail to ensure it gets there fast and on time. And include in the “gift message” section anything you want to say, and we’ll take it from there.
16 November 2009That Petrol Emotion this Saturday Dec. 12 in Brooklyn! / Big Takeover #65 (Sonic Youth cover) Shipped; Order - Subscribe - Renew - Great gifts! Subscribers; Update Your Address ASAP (if changed)
Hey all, just a reminder than England’s (by way of Ireland and Seattle) That Petrol Emotion is playing their only U.S. show for the foreseeable future this Saturday, December 12 at Bell House in Brooklyn (on 7th St. just off 2nd Ave. in Gowanus, near the 4th Ave stop on the F and V or the 9th St. stop on the R), their first New York show of any kind since the early 1990s. / Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #65 Fall 2009 issue with Sonic Youth on the cover (and concluding part twos of our awesome Decemberists, Swervedriver, and Controllers interviews, and fabulous history interviews with Big Star—and John Fry on Chris Bell—and The Nerves of the original “Hanging on the Telephone” fame!) was completed in San Francisco in October! It began shipping last month! And remember, we only come our twice a year, every Spring and Fall, so you don’t want to miss one of our jam-packed 170-page issues! Below is a quick description of its contents.
1 August 2009Big Takeover New Address!! Update your Rolodex! / Blockbuster HALF OFF Month-Long Moving Sale! / TV Smith Live Studio Session for "Rabid in the Kennel" on Breakthruradio.com
NEWS1>> T.V. Smith (Adverts) in session, live in the studio and interviewed on “Rabid in the Kennel,” airs this Monday, hear it now!
NEWS2>> Big Takeover Magazine new address (Update your records!)
NEWS 3>> Big Takeover August-long blowout Moving Sale! Buy one, get one free, half-off sale all month long for back issues and CDs, including our complete sets of issues 1-64! What a sale!23 June 2009Big Takeover #64, Decemberists cover, out on the stands! / Sample Quotes
Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #64 Spring 2009 issue with The Decemberists on the cover (and concluding part twos of our awesome Death Cab for Cutie, Sloan, and Devo interviews) is now on the stands. / “That [‘60s British folk] generation was really into discovering the centuries-old songs that had to deal with really dark and violent themes of romantic and sentimental love. Particularly Anne Briggs, Maddy Pryor, June Tabor—an essay could be written about feminism and the British folk revival, and how a lot of the women artists were arranging songs where rape figured pretty prominently—and I don’t know why that is. I think it was an interesting way of highlighting how different the relations between the sexes were in the 16th century, the 17th century, and how violent the culture that people were living in was.”—COLIN MELOY
16 May 2009Big Takeover #64 About To Ship: Pre-order/ Subscribe/ Renew/ Subscribers: Update Your Address ASAP (if changed)! / Great Gifts!
Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #64 Spring 2009 issue with The Decemberists on the cover (and concluding part twos of our awesome Death Cab for Cutie, Sloan, and Devo interviews) was completed in San Francisco in April! (A full description of its contents is just below!) It will begin shipping this week likely, so you should see it quite soon! And remember, we only come out twice a year, every Spring and Fall, so you don’t want to miss one of our jam-packed 200-page issues! Below is a quick description of its contents.
1 May 2009GUEST SXSW REPORT, TERRIFIC PHOTOS AND ALL! / UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS, SUBSCRIBERS WHO'VE MOVED!
The new Big Takeover 64 is in the works (if you have moved in the last six months and you’re a subscriber, please alert us to your new address as our mags are almost never forwarded!), and I’ve got my hands full, but we’re in luck, because Luke Giffen, singer/guitarist for Fresno’s awesome dreampop-shoegaze band The Sleepover Disaster (see my Top 10 review of their brand new Hover album in the current issue 63!) , has consented to send in a long and detailed diary-report of he and the group’s excursion to Austin for this year’s recent SXSW, complete with copious, terrific photos from his associate, Heather Bernard.
7 March 2009R.I.P. MY CAT MINA / GUEST REVIEW: NOISE POP FESTIVAL, CAFE DU NORD, SAN FRANCISCO, FEBRUARY 27: THEE OH SEES, THE FRESH & ONLYS, TYVEK, AND THE UNNATURAL HELPERS
I’ve been a little too upset this week to speak about this in any way via email, Facebook, here, or whatever, but myself, my missus Mary, and my good friend Herb Jue (who was looking after her of late), and the extended Big Takeover family has been this week mourning the loss of our beloved calico cat, Mina, just about to turn 16. / For my money tonight’s bill is the best of the entire festival and features two of San Francisco’s most exciting bands – THEE OH SEES and THE FRESH & ONLY’S. The other two on the bill, fellow West Coasters THE UNNATURAL HELPERS and Detroit’s TYVEK round out things in fine fashion.
18 February 2009Pt. 3, A Dozen More Reviews, Debuted Here: Kreator, The Lines, Loney, Dear, Mindless Self Indulgence, Pete Molinari, Mount Eerie, Nadja, Milton Nascimento and Jobim Trio, Nico Muhly, New Radiant Storm King, Night Ranger, 1997 / Farewell to Lux Interior
Here’s a third round of reviews posted here and nowhere else! In case you missed my last two posts, we had a nice backlog of several dozen reviews that there was not room for in the current issue 63, or we received the albums right as we were going to press. / Farewell, Lux Interior, a moving recollection by Marcel Feldmar!
31 January 2009A Dozen More Reviews, Debuted Here: Eddie & the Subtitles, Equimanthorn, The Furious Seasons, Half Light, Hellhole, Hospital Ships, the Jealous Girlfriends, the Jet Age, Juniper Lane, Kid Montana, Knitting by Twilight, and Koufax
Here’s a second round of reviews posted here and nowhere else! In case you missed my post from a week ago, we had a nice backlog of several dozen reviews that there was not room for in the current issue 63, or we received the albums right as we were going to press. So again, I thought, let’s put them here for you for now so that you can still read them—and to give those of you who have not seen one of our issues before a taste of what we have been doing in our pages these last 29 years (wow, that’s a long time, isn’t it?). As promised last week, I will try to post them all, a dozen at a time, in this space. So keep checking back every few days and you will find more!
11 January 2009Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com: All 30 Playlists for the 30 Shows I Hosted in 2008! / R.I.P. Ron Asheton of The Stooges
The best way I know to quietly plug my weekly radio show at breakthruradio.com is to let you know what you missed—or hopefully enjoyed—this past year for the last seven months, by listing all 475 or so songs I aired. That list is herein!
27 December 2008R.I.P. Tommy Tee, New Model Army manager and friend of Big Takeover / Issue 63 on the stands
Shocking news of the heart attack death on December 23 of longtime New Model Army manager Tommy Tee, who did more for one individual band than anyone I’ve ever seen, and did it for years and years and years.
16 December 2008Reminder: Big Takeover Still Time For X-mas Gifts / Issue #63 Now Out! / Sample Quotes From the Issue!
Just a reminder that there’s still time for the perfect X-mas gift: Big Takeover magazine! Our brand new Fall/Winter issue 63 with the Death Cab For Cutie cover is now out on the stands (below is a description of its contents), in case you want to treat yourself (you little devil!). Or indeed, if you want a holiday gift subscription for your friends or family whom you think would enjoy our pages (or one of our t-shirts, or any of our back issues, or our CDs), either way you can still order on our secure online store here. Just let us know in the “comments” section of the order form that the order is for X-mas (why not write, in all caps, “RUSH! THIS IS FOR X-MAS!”), and we will be glad to send the package by priority mail to ensure it gets there fast and on time. / SAMPLE ISSUE 63 QUOTE: “Look, I recommend this business, I do, to anyone who really cares about, and thinks they have, ideas that matter. But don’t get involved in pop music if you just want to be famous. It’s not the place for vacuous idiocy at all. It’s severe. It’s terse, tense, bitter, and ultimately, no one you meet in this business is your friend. Not one of them. They all want to replace ya.”—JOHNNY ROTTEN
17 November 2008Hurrah! Big Takeover Fall Issue #63 About To Ship: Pre-order/ Subscribe/ Renew/ Update
Just in time for the Holiday Season! Big Takeover #63 with Death Cab For Cutie on the cover, and concluding part two of our awesome Johnny Rotten Sex Pistols interview is about to ship! (A full description of its contents is just below!) Now is an excellent time to pre-order it if you would like to receive it , or subscribe if you’ve been meaning to; or renew your subscription if it has run out. And remember, BIG TAKEOVER ISSUES, BACK ISSUES, TSHIRTS, CDS (including the brand new, limited edition SPRINGHOUSE CD album, From Now to OK), AND SUBSCRIPTIONS ALSO MAKE THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT! Especially in this season when we are all trying to economize. And in general, don’t forget to order the new Springhouse CD!
12 October 2008Update on our Springhouse tour this week with Magnetic Morning (extra date added! Atlanta with For Against!), and our new third LP is released TODAY!!!: Repeat! "From Now to OK" is out at last, after 10 Years' work!!! / Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com
Hey again, Big Takeover readers! Our new Fall issue #63 is coming soon, and details of that are inside. (Subscribers, don’t forget to update your address if you’ve moved!) But first, here’s the latest update on the SPRINGHOUSE East Coast tour we are doing supporting MAGNETIC MORNING starting this Thursday in Chapel Hill, NC, with more info on it, including the new ATLANTA date with FOR AGAINST (Yes!!!!!!!!)!: Click here for full info!
7 August 2008Guest Review: Maps and Atlases and mewithoutYou live / / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue!
The loss of long-time member and impressive guitarist Christopher Kleinberg has not slowed mewithoutYou down at all. In attempts to end the show on time, they simply pulled their shirts over their faces while the crowd screamed for one more song. They finished with the highly energetic “January 1979” and ended with a new one called “God, God, God.” / Just a reminder, too, if you haven’t listened in yet, my radio show for BreakthruRadio.com successfully launched, and again, here’s a good chance to hear a good bit of what I/we have been writing about in our issues these last 28 years.
7 August 2008Guest Review: Maps and Atlases and mewithoutYou live / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue!
The loss of long-time member and impressive guitarist Christopher Kleinberg has not slowed mewithoutYou down at all. In attempts to end the show on time, they simply pulled their shirts over their faces while the crowd screamed for one more song. They finished with the highly energetic “January 1979” and ended with a new one called “God, God, God.” / Just a reminder, too, if you haven’t listened in yet, my radio show for BreakthruRadio.com successfully launched, and again, here’s a good chance to hear a good bit of what I/we have been writing about in our issues these last 28 years.
7 August 2008Guest Review: Maps and Atlases and mewithoutYou live / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue!
The loss of long-time member and impressive guitarist Christopher Kleinberg has not slowed mewithoutYou down at all. In attempts to end the show on time, they simply pulled their shirts over their faces while the crowd screamed for one more song. They finished with the highly energetic “January 1979” and ended with a new one called “God, God, God.” / Just a reminder, too, if you haven’t listened in yet, my radio show for BreakthruRadio.com successfully launched, and again, here’s a good chance to hear a good bit of what I/we have been writing about in our issues these last 28 years.
22 July 2008LEGENDARY CHICAGO PUNK/POST-PUNK BAND THE EFFIGIES PLAY D.C. and N.Y. (AND ON RADIO) THIS WEEK - FIRST EAST COAST DATES IN 20 YEARS. SUPPORT FROM EDP / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue!
Since they haven’t played the East Coast in two decades, needless to say I am really excited to get another chance to see the fantastic Chicago punk/post-punk rock band The Effigies this weekend. They play D.C. on Thursday, and New York on Friday and Saturday, and if you’re not in the East Coast, they’re live on the radio on Saturday!
10 June 2008Big Takeover (Radio) on BreakthruRadio.com launches! / R.E.M. website lauds Big T / U.K. Rough Trade Legends - Band Of Holy Joy (and Society of Imaginary Friends) – First U.S. Performances / Big Takeover #62 Out Now, and in the Stores! Selected Quotes
In the new issue #62, I promised to let you know when my radio show for BreakthruRadio.com launched, so let me do that now since it launched at noon yesterday. Here’s a good chance to hear a good bit of what I/we have been writing about in our issues these last 28 years ** In other news, we are proud to note that none other than R.E.M. has seen fit to run an excerpt of our current issue 62 cover story on them on their website, and also included some highly flattering and appreciated remarks (“inimitable, must-read!!!!!!!”) on the quality of our publication. ** Over the past 25 years, Band of Holy Joy have put out several LPs on Rough Trade Records and have earned the reputation of being one of the UK’s top underground live acts. These are the band’s first-ever American tour dates and they and have cut a self-released seven-song EP that will be for sale only at these shows to mark the occasion. ** Reminder: Big Takeover #62 with R.E.M. on the cover is on the stands! Look for it in your favorite store near you that carries good music magazines!
30 May 2008Big Takeover #62 Out Now, and in the Stores! Selected Quotes and Highlights!
Big Takeover #62 with R.E.M. on the cover is on the stands! Look for it in your favorite store near you that carries good music magazines!
9 May 2008Big Takeover #62 About To Ship: Contents Details / Update Your Address
Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #62 with R.E.M. on the cover was completed in San Francisco in April! It will begin shipping this week likely, so you should see it quite soon! Included in this blog is a quick description of its contents.
30 April 2008Final Night Guest Review From Noise Pop Festival by Jerry Connolly: Old Chicago Punk Movie, British Sea Power, and More!
A film that I’ve been dying to see since the trailer showed up on Youtube last year: You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984. Clubs like Oz and O’Banions stayed just one step ahead of the law (thanks in part to likely payoffs to the man) and managed to host many classic shows by the likes of The Effigies, Naked Raygun, and Strike Under. The live footage shown was just stunning: The Effigies at OZ in all their boots-and-braces glory, for instance. Early incarnations of Naked Raygun playing loft parties!!!! Amazing stuff. I can’t say enough about how good this film is and it how it succeeds on so many levels. A must see…
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