In this day of lightweight pop stars, Soft Machine achieved something that most musicians strive for but never achieve — a lasting, meaningful and appealing album that sounds as relevant today as it did over 40 years ago.
Now that my “Top 40 Albums of 2012” two-part countdown shows have aired on Breakthruradio.com, and my Top 10 has been officially posted on the Pazz and Jop Poll web site, it’s finally time to share with you all my Top Picks of 2012 List in full.
if you want to hear (not read!) my top 40 Album Picks list for 2012, I have made it available to you all in aural (not written!) form, by picking one song off each that I really like and doing two Countdown shows featuring them on my regular weekly “Big takeover on Breakthruradio.com” show.
Good news! Big Takeover #71 Fall 2012 issue with Brooklyn’s Beach House 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 (to go with several Mens’ and Womens’ sizes) 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?!”
Just a reminder that there’s no need to camp out in tents in front of a big box retailer Thursday night! Big Takeover is happy to help you stay warm and cozy at home instead (and get a jump on Cyber Monday), with our secure online Yahoo Store—for that music-loving friend or relative you know who’d like something fun. Heck, we’ll even ship it directly to them (for free) if you like! (Or to you, for them, or for yourself, if you’re in the mind to buy yourself some holiday treats too!)
New York's preeminent orch-pop band, The Sharp Things, have announced plans to release Dogs Of Bushwick, an album series to start roll out on February 26, 2013, with its first installment, Green Is Good.
Green Is Good will be the band's first offering since 2007's critically acclaimed A Moveable Feast (Bar/None). In advance of the new release, here's a free download of non-album single: "It's Alright," originally composed and sung by Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward on Sabbath's otherwise forgettable LP Technical Ecstasy (1976)
The Winter Sounds present “The Sun Also Rises” from the new full-length Runner, to be released November 27 on New Granada Records. Click through for a free download of this song!
This is a tome well worth reading not just for Yo La Tengo’s fans but anyone interested in indie rock’s travails from the late ’70s beginnings to today.
With new bass player, the experimental rock supergroup returns with new album and tour.
On Friday, June 15,Windbreakers co-founder Bobby Sutliff was involved in a bad single-vehicle accident near his home in Powell, Ohio. He has sustained several serious injuries. Various charitable efforts to aid the sticken singer/songwriter are now underway.
WFNX (101.7 FM) in the Boston area has been sold and this article tells why in my opinion the radio station will be missed.
Good news! Big Takeover #70 Spring 2012 issue with Brooklyn’s Nada Surf on the cover is out on the stands! And since the issue is appearing in the best book, record, and magazine shops near you, now is an excellent time look for it there or contact us via our secure online Yahoo Store to order it if you would like to receive it in the mail, or subscribe if you’ve been meaning to, or renew your subscription if it has run out. And just a reminder that there’s still time for the perfect gift: Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues!
He was a nice man, who was very patient with my endlessly peppering him with questions about his days (and recordings) in The Sleepers (1978-1981), one of the truly remarkable punk and post-punk era late ’70s/early ’80s bands of all time, as well as his association with the also incredible same-era bands Negative Trend and Toiling Midgets.
A nice guy, from a consistently great band for 34 years.
The (recently revived) D-Generation frontman (and former leader of New York hardcore greats Heart Attack, Hope, and Bellvue, all of whom I spin during this show) and prolific solo star stopped by Greenpoint’s Thump studios to record some live in session songs (I particularly like the first one offered, “Moscow”) and sit for a spirited and funny interview with yours truly. Check it out!
Tune in to today’s Rabid Sessions show straight from Thump Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with the Stiff Records’ heyday legend, still regularly at work, and his equally hallowed singer/songwriter solo star spouse!
A live radio interview that everyone can listen to; or check it out fully archived, later, at your convenience.
This is an excellent three-minute documentary about the store that began filming six months ago or so, appreciating its place in the music community, that now has taken a different story turn, sad to say.
Hermes’ lengthy and detailed tome reads a bit like the proto-punk diary From the Velvets to the Voidoids except that it covers virtually all of New York City’s then burgeoning musical styles between 1973 and 1977.
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!
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?!”
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
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!
“Song for Clementine” is the first single from Songs for the New, the sophomore CD by New York-based band Two Dark Birds, which will be released this October on Riot Bear.
A great band from right here in Brooklyn, USA. Listen now!
Click through to listen to and download the newest single from teenage indie-pop stars Edelweiss — exclusively from BigTakeover.com!
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.
Mainly, much of the book deals with Mould’s struggles to come to grips with who he really is.
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!
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.
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!
Everything you’ve heard about this book, and for that matter, about Jack Grisham himself in his younger years, is absolutely true.
This month on Rabid in the Kennel, we offer a particularly historic session with departing Brooklyn dreampop/shoegaze band The Depreciation Guild.
Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid picks his 50 best new albums for 2010, along with 10 best singles and 20 best reissues!
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.
“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.”
Meet Jack Rabid: he’s heard of every band on the planet. OK maybe not every band but he sure as hell is a super-fan. He’s been writing and publishing 200+ plush pages of interviews and reviews in each issue of The Big Takeover music magazine for 30 years and has no plans of stopping. Watch this video!
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!
MGMT, Devo, Van Dyke Parks, Jonsi and others will celebrate Robert Moog and the music his inventions influenced.
“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!
“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!
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.
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.
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!
He’s singing songs solo acoustic live in the studio from his new third solo LP and he sits for a 35-minute chat.
The Big Takeover is proud to exclusively premiere the first single off Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody‘s new LP, I Could Sleep For a Thousand Years.
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!
Morrissey cited them as a favorite, but really, who doesn’t like them? Their 1988 debut album Lovely, with its hit single “Crash,” still sounds great, as does the follow-up, Pure. Lovely showed more musical range than much of the competition.
“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!
