from Unauthorized Waylon Jennings by Chris Stroffolino

Big Announcement!: Springhouse reforms for new third LP From Now to OK and East Coast tour dates 2008, with Magnetic Morning and Julie Ocean! / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue 62! by Jack Rabid

Here’s all the info on my old band Springhouse’s first LP in 15 years (since we were on the Caroline label), From Now to OK, and accompanying “Big Takeover Magazine Presents” East Coast tour with Magnetic Morning and Julie Ocean! (and on one date, The Jet Age):

Guest Review: Maps and Atlases and mewithoutYou live / / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue! by Jack Rabid

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.

Guest Review: Maps and Atlases and mewithoutYou live / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue! by Jack Rabid

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.

Guest Review: Maps and Atlases and mewithoutYou live / Listen to Big Takeover on Breakthruradio.com! / Don't Forget the New Issue! by Jack Rabid

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.

Thriving on Teenage Nostalgia with a Sega Emulator by Chuck Foster

A recent trip to LA rekindled my love of Sega games. Now I’m playing those games on my PC.

LEGENDARY 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! by Jack Rabid

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!

Big 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 by Jack Rabid

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!

Does Barack Obama Have Anything To Do With The State Of The U.S. Music Biz? by Chris Stroffolino

So the baby boomers are trying to put it into the 1960s paradigm map again. BEWARE THESE BABY BOOMERS!! This is my shtick. Yeah, we need the baby boomers, and Hillary Clinton supporters. They still have a huge demographic—but it’s been about them them them for so long—-I think that might explain some of the pent up resentment, or sheer catharsis of “Generation X-ish” (a generation that never really had the demographic numbers by itself), and the under 30 *MARK RISTAINO” (MUSIC FOR AMERICA) crowd—-who, now, finally had a way to speak, and be heard, not just by the older people, but BY EACH OTHER.

Big Takeover #62 About To Ship: Contents Details / Update Your Address by Jack Rabid

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.

Final Night Guest Review From Noise Pop Festival by Jerry Connolly: Old Chicago Punk Movie, British Sea Power, and More! by Jack Rabid

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…

PJ Harvey III (of III) by Chris Stroffolino

Ultimately, 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 by Jack Rabid

Scottish 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. by Jack Rabid

OK, 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 by Chuck Foster

The 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.