The first thing I thought when “Born For The Road” launched out of the DVD player I’m using to spin this CD was “Savoy Brown look out.” And as Danny Klein of the J. Geils Band references “bluezheimer’s” for those of us forgetful in our old age, it took reading the liner notes in the gorgeous eight panel fold-out that holds Last Train Home to remind me that Roger Earl and Lonesome Dave Peverett were in Savoy Brown. Read the rest of this entry »

Keyboard player Karen Deal passed away early Friday morning, November 19th.

It was on August 12th in a tribute piece to my dear friend Bobby Hebb I wrote this quote: “Jerry Garcia said on the passing of Janis Joplin: “Death only matters to the person that’s dying. The rest of us are going to live without that voice. For those of us for whom she was a person, we’ll have to do without the person.” Three and a half months after losing Bobby, another close friend who spent just about as much time on the phone with me as Mr. Hebb did, Karen Deal Balin, is also gone. Garcia’s quote is heartfelt, but not entirely accurate, at least from my perspective. Their absence in my life now matters to me. Read the rest of this entry »

Legendary Artist and Producer Dr. Dre has Just Released the First Track From his Long-Anticipated Album, Detox

Legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre has just released the first track from his long-anticipated album, Detox. Dre’s song, “Kush,” featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon, hit radio early Tuesday morning. Read the rest of this entry »

Cinder Block, the world’s leading independent music merchandiser, has partnered with Weezer to handle its worldwide merchandising needs. Weezer kicks off its “Memories” tour this month in Los Angeles in support of its latest release, Hurley. In addition to servicing its touring business, Cinder Block will provide the band with its web store, retail distribution and licensing solutions. Weezer’s signing brings the band’s merchandising business back to Cinder Block, where it worked for the better part of the 2000s. Read the rest of this entry »

The inspired guitar sound and playing of Rory Gallagher gets another important look on two releases from Eagle Rock Entertainment, the CD of The Beat Club Sessions and a double DVD of Ghost Blues.

The single CD is taken from the early 1970s German TV show, Beat Club and the press release tells us that the material is drawn from three different appearances on that show. The guitar is front and center and in sparkling form with its gritty nuances slipping through the speaker ahead of the bass and drums…it’s all a backdrop to Rory’s terrific skills Read the rest of this entry »

Collector’s Choice – along with the Bing Crosby Archive – recently issued six Bing Crosby special releases, reissuing three classic albums in the “deluxe format” along with a previously unreleased disc, a new compilation and a 2-CD set of Crosby
rarities.
       
Interesting that in the 1970′s and 80′s it would have been totally uncool to listen to artists like Jerry Vale, Vic Damone, Ferrante & Teicher and…Bing Crosby.  But after Danny Bennett successfully resurrected his father’s career and Tony Bennettfound a new, hip audience there was the additional reinvention of “Space Age Bachelor Pad” music for the younger crowd Read the rest of this entry »

Alan Parsons, world-famous producer, engineer, recording and performing artist, will be at Guitar Center West Los Angeles. With an engineer credit on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and studio time with the Beatles as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios, Parsons is a music legend. He is a prolific recording and performing artist with more than three decades of material. Best known for his namesake The Alan Parsons Project, Parsons continues to impact the evolution of popular music. All Our Yesterdays, a rare recording featuring Alan on lead vocals, was released in 2010 on Authentik Artists. The song was recorded especially for his new instructional series for recording musicians entitled “The Art And Science Of Sound Recording.” Read the rest of this entry »

Renowned vocalist Jeannie Gagné will be performing a free concert at the Friend Recital Hall at Berklee College of Music on Wednesday, November 10. She’ll be singing jazz and original songs, accompanied by a jazz trio of Berklee’s finest. Accompanying Jeannie will be Barry Silverman on piano, Shaye Jones on bass and Giancarlo di Frizio on drums. Read the rest of this entry »

West Coast Seattle Boy – The Jimi Hendrix Anthology, featuring more than four hours of rare and previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix music on a 5 Disc (4 CD/1 DVD) is the first big box from the new Sony deal with Experience Hendrix. Previously Universal Music had a beautiful velvet 4 CD box in 2000 entitled simply The Jimi Hendrix Experience ( I’ll have to pull out my article on the making of that from Replication News back in the day and share it). The original Uni package was the first enormous project to take another look at Jimi’s commercial recordings… Read the rest of this entry »

To celebrate the October 12th CD and MP3 download release of Darius Rucker’s Charleston, SC 1966, the Zoo is giving away ONE copy of the CD, courtesy of Capitol Nashville, to ONE lucky winner.

Synopsis:
Darius Rucker signed with Capitol Records Nashville in 2007 and has since been embraced by the country music community with his chart-topping 2008 debut, Learn to Live — an album that has produced three consecutive No. 1 singles and the Top 5 hit, “History In The Making.” Rucker’s transition has been Read the rest of this entry »

PorterHouse Media , the production company founded by master video remixer DJ Steve Porter, will create a series of ten videos that will air on ESPN in conjunction with the weekly NFL games. After creating videos that aired as the 2010 NBA Playoff/Marketing Campaign, the 2010-2011 NFL season allowed PorterHouse Media to again successfully bridge sports and music.

“Our production team at PorterHouse Media has thoroughly enjoyed the past projects we have collaborated on with ESPN, and both the team and myself are very excited for this next challenging opportunity to create something special for the 2010-11 NFL season.”- Steve Porter Read the rest of this entry »

Walls of Jericho takes Mark Newman into poppier territory than found on his 2006 Americana album, Must Be A Pony. Sure, the title track of that collection had its pop sensibilities, but leaning more towards Rusty Kershaw than David LaFlamme and It’s A Beautiful Day, covered here on track 11, a version of the underground hit “White Bird”.

Newman does a nice job on that classic tune that always annoyed me, rounding it out and making it listenable (whereas LaFlamme and even a violin-laden rendition by Sam Bush were drenched in their “authenticity” bringing the song to a maudlin level a bit too hard to take). Newman does dip back into his traditional bag with “She’s The One”, but it still has a modern, Triple A folk style that works well in the context of these Walls of Jericho.

His voice is also on here and throughout the disc, and the playing is as superb as we’ve come to expect from this journeyman. “Until The Morning Comes” opens the disc and is highly commercial and quite beautiful. It’s a perfect opening to a very strong dozen tunes that have both integrity and personality.

Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He was a film critic for Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com and produces and hosts Visual Radio. Visual Radio is a fifteen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed John Lennon’s Uncle Charlie, Margaret Cho, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere, Marty Balin, Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.

Metallica has partnered with Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) to headline the Call of Duty®: Black Ops launch event on November 4 at Santa Monica Airport’s Hangar 8. The event will feature a performance by the GRAMMY®-Award winning band, honor the six branches of the Armed Forces and raise $1 million for The Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit, public benefit corporation founded by Activision Blizzard that helps soldiers with the transition to civilian life and help them establish jobs and careers. Call of Duty®: Black Ops will release worldwide on November 9. Read the rest of this entry »

Consistent is the word for Alice Cooper with this tremendous new release chock full of classics like “Is It My Body”, “Be My Love”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “Vengeance is Mine” and even album tracks like “Killer” which original Cooper aficionados find so appealing.

For those who remember the television show “Rock Concert” where Alice Cooper did a superb Bloodrock-ish version of “I’m 18″ to open the program, it was one of those iconic televised moments, as classic a moment in 70s TV rock as David Bowie on the Midnight Special. It did come out on a terrific double lp bootleg followed a couple of years later by Warner Brothers single l.p. release The Alice Cooper Show (Live) which featured the Dick Wagner/Steve Hunter band from Lou Reed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal and it’s quick follow-up, Lou Reed Live. Read the rest of this entry »

October 29 was the birthday of Denny Laine, founding member of The Moody Blues and full-fledged member of the early, vintage Wings band featuring Paul & Linda McCartney. Yes, the man formerly known as Brian Frederick Arthur Hines, was born on that day in 1944…and while he was playing at the Cutting Room in New York four years ago, he found out that his ex wife, Jo Jo Laine, had passed away…on his birthday.

If you don’t believe in coincidences from the other side, keep in mind that Jo Jo certainly did…so there’s a charming kind of irony in that her persona is now indelibly linked to her husband in a way in which he couldn’t possibly have imagined. But that was our Jo Jo….she had a way of dropping one liners and things that would keep you intrigued….clearly, even after she passed through this veil of tears. Read the rest of this entry »

Not too long ago my girlfriend wanted to know how I got introduced to Jesse Barish. Sincere thanks are offered to the combination of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and KBC Band) and Mike Somavilla (number one historian of the legendary band Quicksilver Messenger Service).

Jesse’s resume of writing timeless tunes which includes but are not limited to “Count On Me”, “St. Charles”, “Atlanta Lady”, and “Hearts” is only superseded by his ego-free existence. He is the true professional, successful yet humble and appreciative of his fans and his craft. Read the rest of this entry »