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Big Takeover #62 About To Ship: Contents Details / Update Your Address
May 9Once 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.
Big Takeover #62 About To Ship: Update Your Address ASAP
May 6Once 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. If you are a subscriber and you need to update your address, please tell us right away, as we need to have the shipping order updated no later than Wednesday at 3 PM Eastern Time.
Final Night Guest Review From Noise Pop Festival by Jerry Connolly: Old Chicago Punk Movie, British Sea Power, and More!
Apr 30A 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…
PJ Harvey III (of III)
Mar 23Ultimately, this groundbreaking song (which is nonetheless deeply rooted in traditions) helps rewrite the mystery of love (and the more than love that is really part of love).
NEW YORKERS (and Grand Rapids and later Philadelphia): Go see ASTRID WILLIAMSON live this week! Rare chance!!! / NOISE POP, SAN FRANCISCO, NIGHT 3, FEBRUARY 29 BY JERRY CONNOLLY
Mar 9Scottish born, English artist ASTRID WILLIAMSON is a longtime favorite of The Big Takeover, and she rarely plays in the U.S. This week brings three chances to catch her awesome set of pipes (two gigs in New York, both of them free admission, as well as Grand Rapids, with one in Philly a few months later) / “Day three of Noise Pop (day two for me, as I missed out on Thursday’s debauchery with a headache, alas), has me biking to Bottom of the Hill (BOTH) in the Portrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. BOTH has been my frequent destination for live music over the 11 years I have lived in The City, and I could get here with my eyes shut. The mid-size club (capacity being 300) has great sound and a decent layout. And I can’t help but feel very comfortable as I walk through to door at 9:00 sharp. I’m here to see VEIL VEIL VARNISH, WHITE DENIM, A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, and HOLY F**.”
NOISE POP, SAN FRANCISCO, NIGHT 1, FEBRUARY 27 BY JERRY CONNOLLY; R.I.P. MIKE CONLEY, SINGER OF '80s PUNK BAND M.I.A.
Mar 3OK, so it’s not on par with SXSW but maybe it’s not trying to be. The overall feel is less an obvious industry love fest and more of an event where a fan can enjoy an evening without fear of being kept out of a show by industry snobs filling the room with their hot air and BO, or run over by the truck dispensing free ginseng energy drinks. Noise Pop seemingly caters to the actual music lover, and in this writer’s eyes that’s the way it should be. This fan-centric attitude can only come from the top, and by that I mean KEVIN ARNOLD, its founder and passionate supporter of independent music. To say that he has done a service to the independent music community is the understatement of the decade. Thanks Kevin.
New Blogger in Town: Downloading Free, Legal MP3's from the Internet Underground
Feb 20The new guy is on a mission to explore websites where users can upload/download music and tell you about some undiscovered, unsigned talent whose music is floating in the cybernetic ether of the internet.
You Exhibitionist!: PJ Harvey's "Sheela Na Gig" 15 Years Later [Part II]
Feb 5In Harvey’s “Sheela-Na-Gig,” the sound of the polysyllabic proper (even clinical) word “exhibitionist” becomes more obscene (and stings more) than any rapper’s use of the word “hoe” or “skeezer.”
The British Are Coming!
Feb 5I’m back! And I’ve returned with some up and coming bands—from both sides of the Pond!
Hard to Spin Dreary News on Compact Disc Sales
Jan 26Last year, U.S. compact disc sales plunged by 19%. With the consumer today facing pressure from all sides, chances are that 2008 will be even worse.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bruce Springsteen
Jan 20The energy, enthusiasm and the overall rapturous joy of the both the musicians and the audience was just contagious. This was my Eureka moment!
Special Issue 61 Bonus Reviews!: Keren Ann, Condors, Feist, Raspberries, Rotary Club, Shack, Soul Asylum, and Factory Records' Complete Graphic Album Book / Our Condolences to Two of our Own / New Issue of Big Takeover
Jan 13The five reviews of mine included here did not appear in issue 61 of The Big Takeover, because I frankly ran out of time in my seemingly endless writing job to do them in time before the issue had to be closed and sent off to the printer. But they all deserved better and I am glad to print them here rather than making you all wait several more months to read them in issue 62. Likewise, the other three, written by three of our other talented and valuable writers, did not appear in 61 for other reasons explained herein.
WEA Is Shameless
Jan 8It’s only January, but already we’ve got our first example of major label greed running out of control. Nonesuch, a division of WEA, has issued two versions of the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s film of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Johnny Depp in an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical of the same name. Consumers – and retailers – have an unpleasant choice to make.
R.I.P. Evan Farrell, ex-Rogue Wave (and Oscar Peterson, too) / Two new books of note I am quoted in / Happy New Year! / New Issue of Big Takeover
Dec 27I am stunned and saddened to hear that another death has befallen the Rogue Wave folks.
REMINDER: BIG TAKEOVER - STILL IN TIME FOR X-MAS GIFTS! / New Big Takeover #61 (New Pornographers cover) Began Shipping!; Order/Subscribe/Renew/Perfect Holiday Gift!
Dec 12Just a reminder that there’s still time for the perfect X-mas gift: Big Takeover magazine! 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), you can still order on our secure online store. 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.
Jack Rabid’s Top 10
Week of May 4
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For Against – Shade Side, Sunny Side (Words on Music)
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Sloan – _Parallel Play _ (Yep Roc)
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The Replacements – deluxe reissues of their first four LPs (Twin/Tone/Ryko/Rhino)
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Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs (Atlantic)
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Willie Nelson – One Hell of a Ride box set (Legacy/SonyBMG)
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Black Watch – Icing the Snow Queen (Eskimo)
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The Effigies – Reside (Criminal IQ)
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Secret Shine – All of the Stars (Clairecords/Tonevendor)
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The Libertines – Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Libertines Music)
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The Wedding Present – El Rey (Manifesto)