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Teenage Fanclub on the cover and concluding part twos of our awesome interviews with The Ramones (a previously unpublished 1992 interview), For Against, ’70s Vancouver punks Subhumans Canada, and Graham Nash on The Hollies, is out on the stands!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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
Jazz drum great Rashied Ali died on Wednesday after a heart attack.
MARK BURGESS live in Philadelphia on Tuesday, August 11th. Read on!
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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!
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!
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!
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.
IKE TURNER died December 12, reportedly in his sleep. He was 76 years old. Was he a good man? Seems unlikely. Was he a good musician? Hell yeah. The man invented rock ‘n’ roll. Really.
Just 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.
Big Takeover #61 with THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS’ A.C. NEWMAN began shipping last week; Again, now is an excellent time to order it if you would like to receive it! / Sonics: ”’He’s Waiting’ is the opener. There’s the voice; how is it so nearly the same?”
It’s odd that a younger generation of consumers is being punished for (and threatened) for exactly—or a very similar—thing that thrived in the repressive JOE MCCARTHY era …
The musical portion of my Friday began in late afternoon when I went to the Pop Culture Press party at a pub a short trip from downtown. Ostensibly, I went to meet up with my friend Michael Krumper and to see the Hoodoo Gurus, because Michael and I had seen them together on their first tour of American twenty three years before. To the great credit of the Pop Culture Press people, the lineup of bands playing at the party was outstanding (and the fish and chips weren’t bad either—although someone stole my beer when I set it down and turned my back for a minute.
Guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr. was one of the greats of blues, though the general public never seemed to realize it.
I wouldn’t want to have been his merchandize seller (who we saw being caned by a wobbling Lee after a Town Hall show a few years ago, for transgressions unknown!), or for that matter his drummer or even his towel boy or bartender or banker or drug buddy, but man, being his fan on these last few years’ concert nights felt better than anything.
Last week, Arthur passed away, due to acute myeloid leukemia, in his birthplace of Memphis, Tennessee. Here, I offer my respect to one of music’s all-time greats.
On Thursday, famed comedian and actor RED BUTTONS died in Los Angeles after a lengthy struggle with vascular disease. He was 87.
In replacing HUGH CORNWELL—who also was the group’s lead singer for 16 years – PAUL ROBERTS had enormous shoes to fill. By most accounts Roberts’ feet were too small.
Some say that once a cultural trend receives coverage on National Public Radio, its next step is to The New York Times and on to ubiquity. If this theory holds true, by this time next year DIR EN GREY will be taking KORN out as their opening act.
He really was an appreciative person, and whenever I would try to pin him down as being in any way bitter or unhappy with his old band’s underserved lack of mass success, he would politely decline my invitation, and instead say he felt lucky to have made so much music.
The passing of GRANT MACLENNAN of THE GO-BETWEENS is especially sad because it seems like he had so many great years of music-making still ahead of him.
