Feelin' Out Of Place, Reunions, and Other Fun Stuff To Twist Your Gray Matter

Wow! First off, let me apologize in advance for not being on the blog for almost 2 weeks. Definitely been at work too much the past 14 days or so!

However, it was while I was at my regular full time job, that I was able to have a chat about music with a fellow co-worker who happens to 19 years old. He was surprised... very surprised... that I liked alternative music, or music that kicks ass, or whatever label you want to give it this week. He openly admitted that "I didn't seem the type" that would enjoy bands like Nirvana, Weezer, Korn, and many others. He pegged me for more of a "classic rock" kind of guy, ie; liking the music that I grew up with in the 70's and early 80's.

I told him I like different genres of music from many different decades, but I like this genre of music the best. That's one thing about rock n roll that I've always liked - it's always changing... it's always growing. The next big thing isn't going to be some individual with the hair just right, or the guitar at a certain angle or the cigarette hanging out just so. It's about an individual that hasn't been discovered yet, doing something totally different or original, playing in a bedroom or in a garage somewhere... hopefully.

I also found it ironic that some of this 19 year old's favorite songs were from "my generation". Of course, he was OK with that - liking music from multiple generations. He's young... this was how it was supposed to be. Kids his age could listen to rock music from various decades. However, it was "out of place" for me to do the same. It was as if, as soon as someone turns 30, an unspoken or unwritten torch is supposed to be passed to the younger generation. The person who turns 30 must no longer listen to new stuff... just listen to the music that's from YOUR generation. In other words, that concept is acceptable.

This eye-opener was in fact, a good thing. Being this co-worker's boss, this interaction actually strengthened our working relationship. It's too bad other people have such a hard time with this concept... just be yourself & you will be accepted.

Moving on to other musical tidbits, as well as "being accepted", I was reading a retrospective piece on Iggy Pop. It turns out, that back in May of 1973, he reformed the Stooges (much to everyone's surprise), recorded & released "Raw Power". You may know, that back in August of 1971, Iggy left the group, moved to Florida, and worked on his golf game while mowing lawns. Talk about perceptions... can you imagine having your lawn mowed (and possibly other landscaping done) by Iggy Pop??

Also during this week in alternative music history;
- The Cure release their debut album "Three Imaginary Boys" on Fiction Records in the UK.
- Sid Vicious (John Beverly), Bono (Paul Hewson) and Krist Novoselic, (Nirvana) Ian Dury, David Byrne, and Ian Atsbury (The Cult) all born this week.
- Lastly, I was reading another article about the 80's band, Bow Wow Wow. It seems that during this week back in 1982, they quit the European tour they were doing with Queen. Their last show together was in Holland. It was an "abbreviated" set, playing through a continuous rain of bottles, cans, and wads of paper. That got me to thinking, while I like Queen's music, what was up with them and other alternative music bands? It's like oil & water...

This will be my last blog for this week. Hoping to get back on again next week. Be sure to tune into 360 Degrees of Alternative. I've added more artists & tunes over the past 2 weeks, including lots of indie bands and artists.

Til next time, peace out.
Dave

Evolving With Life & Other Cheeky Dribble

I posted on the stations Facebook page last Sunday, the 25th, my only day off this week, that I would "hit the blog" on Monday. Well, that didn't happen. I have a sprinkling of free time this morning, so here we go!

As of this writing, the station is, in my humble opinion, doing well. In fact, it has exceeded my expectations. 360 Degrees has been "on the air" so to speak for almost 2 months. We have a whole heap of dedicated listeners and fans... thank you! Our station is part of a web based community that hosts other stations of ever imaginable genre. There are over 20,000 radio stations on the hosting site. There are over 500 "alternative" stations on there as well. Currently, 360 Degrees is in the top 50 of it's genre & in the top 2000 overall... all in less than 2 months.

For those of you who haven't checked the station out yet, I encourage you to do so. Don't let the term "alternative" fool you or keep you away due to stereo-types. This is one reason why I feature four decades of music... to squash those stereo-types.
Alternative is one of those labels that means totally different things, depending on the context and the people who listen to it. In my opinion, the music was born in the mid 60's, as an answer to not only musicians, but as well to the music industry, that you did not have to be The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or Bob Dylan to be successful. It was OK to embrace "something different". The genre sort of got lost by the turn of 70's, but regrouped & exploded with the D.I.Y. punk ethic of the mid 70s. It continued to morph into sub-genres throughout the 80's, and then has enjoyed another revival of popularity since the mid 90's with the commercial success of Nirvana.

I must admit, I have not blogged as much this month as I did in March. I'm currently working more hours at my regular full time job, and myself & my family are contemplating a move to another location here in Maine. Even thinking about and/or planning a geographical move requires more time than most people realize. I have to face reality - I'm not single, 21 years old & in college anymore, where all my crap could fit into the back of a pickup truck & the move could take a half a day on some weekend.

Sometimes your life evolves so slowly that you don't perceive the scenery changing. All you have to do is pack up your office, or better yet, your apartment or house for a move (or even planning for one) to see how far you've really come. I feel it's the same way with music sometimes. It takes a "major move" to really shake things up. Then, after the dust settles, we can see how far we've really come. And it's usually for the better.

If the move does come to fruition, the station, the blog, email & the website (that will hopefully go live in the next week or two), will be completely unaffected. That's one of the beauties of Internet radio. I'll keep you posted. If anything, one positive thing I'll get out of all this chaos, is some bigger diggs... and that means more space for the station... and that means better things for the listeners & fans!

Peace out,
Dave

The "New" Jane's Addiction, More Faith No More, and Dare We Say It... More!!

As I wrote yesterday, that was pretty much my only shot at writing for the blog. That being said & time of a premium today, here's some cool links to check out what's going on in the Alternative Music world. Is it me, or are we "going forward into the past"?

1st up, former GNR bassist Duff McKagan on the new Jane's Addiction;

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/04/13/inside-the-new-janes-addiction-duff-mckagan-on-bands-plans/


Next, Faith No More kicks ass in San Francisco;

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/04/13/faith-no-more-return-to-the-u-s-with-powerhouse-san-fran-show/


Remembering Malcolm McLaren;

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/04/12/new-york-dolls-sylvain-sylvain-remembers-malcolm-mclaren/


Some additional "Did You Know?";
Real names of artists you know or "Good thing they used a stage name"...

- William Micheal Albert Broad aka; Billy Idol
- Micheal Blazary aka; Flea (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
- Brian Hugh Warner aka; Marliyn Manson
- Robert Bartleh Cummings aka; Rob Zombie

Have a great weekend,
Peace out,
Dave

Iggy Pop, Taking Weeks To Pick Up The Pieces of Your Brain, What's In a Name, and More!

Well, here's this week's only (literally) shot with the blog. I'm tellin' ya, these 6 day work weeks are getting old. Starting this month, I'm going to feature a new little tidbit to the blog called, "Did You Know?" It's going to contain quirky & interesting footnotes about the music we feature here at 360 Degrees. It came to mind yesterday as I was finishing up my income taxes. The title of "Did You Know" hit me as I was searching for help tips on the governments new stimulus credit, which is so confusing. Don't ask...

With the recent introduction of Iggy Pop & the Stooges into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, I was glancing through some interesting tidbits about the band, especially way back when they started in the 60's. I also came across an old Rolling Stone piece dating back to 1970 when the Stooges were putting the finishing touches (if you could call it that) on their 2nd album "Funhouse" which was soon to be released. Apparently, the Stooges were so different from many of the other bands (which was true) from that era, that Rolling Stone deemed it worthy to give them additional press (or perhaps it was an advanced warning).

The blurb written by Charlie Burton states, "The album finds the band drifting into longer & longer jams. The Stooges have added sax player Steve MacKay who helps the group realize the jazz style freakouts that echo their new fascination with John Coltrane. If you long to have your mind blown open so wide that it will take weeks for you to pick up the little bitty pieces, then by all means, buy this album." Wow...

Speaking of oddities, I would love to find this video... back in 1980 Gary Numan released The Touring Principle, the first full-length commercially available video. Talk about being ahead of the curve...

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to some tunes by The Pretenders. I still like Chrissie Hynde after all these years. Anyways, I'm also remembering that it was on this day back in 1983, that Pete Farndon, the original bass player for the band, was found dead from a heroin overdose. This was the 2nd death in less than a year of one of the original band members. The other being James Honeyman-Scott back in June of 1982 of a cocaine overdose. Word had it that Farndon was the midst of forming a new band with former Clash drummer Topper Headon - who coincidently also was battling heroin abuse and left the Clash because he was unable to cope with it - at the time of Pete's death.

Here's this weeks "Did You Know":
- Back in 1973, Declan McManus went solo... who?? Before his 1st gig, he changes his last name to Costello, his grandmothers maiden surname. His future record label Stiff Records, 3 years later, would come up with the idea of changing his 1st name to Elvis.

That's it for now - keep listening!
Peace out,
Dave

Devo Goes to College, Chrissie Hynde Moves to England, Elvis Costello Gets "Stiffed" and More!

Feels good to get to the blog again! This is the 1st chance I've had to do this in well over a week. As I was thinking about this, I realized a few "deficiencies" about myself. Personally, I like to be organized. Personally, I finding that I'm becoming less so. Frankly, I like to feel that I have good time management skills - had to with 2 kids growing up in the house. Frankly, I feel that the management part is still there, but the time factor is sometimes non-existent. There... I said it... that's the 1st part of therapy. To quote Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon strip, "Admitting that you have a problem indicates that you're not too far gone." OK - never mind...

Before we even get to some tidbits, I managed to catch a blurb on TV that featured a story about Alan Freed. I won't go into the history of this historical figure in rock music, but it was this week back in 1956 that Freed hosted the first national radio show devoted to the new style of rock 'n' roll that debuted on CBS. It was called Rock and Roll Dance Party. This is a classic case where "you cannot appreciate the present unless you appreciate the past". Without moments like this, there would be no rock music today.

Ten years later, in 1966, we find that David Bowie released his first solo single called, "Do Anything You Say". It was available only in the UK on Pye records.

Moving ahead to 1973, Devo makes it's 1st public appearance as part of the Kent State Creative Arts Festival. They are known as Sextet Devo, because the name sounded "academic" according to the band. Even though the loose group had only three days to rehearse, they managed to put together a pretty decent set. They performed such early classics as "Private Secretary", "Beehive Flash", and "Wiggle Worm". However, they were unlike anything the audience had ever heard. At times, the crowd was confused, amused, and some even danced. It probably didn't help that band members were oddly dressed... everything from animal masks, to a butcher's coat, to doctor's scrubs...

The same year, we find that Chrissie Hynde is an American who's in love in England. She came over about a week ago with literally a suitcase, her Iggy Pop records, and the clothes on her back. She lands a day job at an architects firm, but at night she works feverishly at the music scene in London. Within a year, she'll get her 1st byline reviewing records for the New Musical Express. Within 2 years, she'll get her first chance to meet Seymour Stein, the owner of Sire records who would eventually sign her group The Pretenders.

Elvis Costello makes his debut on Stiff Records back in 1977. The single contains "Less Than Zero" and "Radio Sweetheart". The sessions were produced by Nick Lowe and are recorded in "reasonable stereo". Reading the matrix on the records, one would find "Elvis is King" and "Elvis is King on this side too". The single actually gets good reviews, although they seemed contradictory... often within themselves. One review in the New Musical Express states, "It's a great record. Doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell. What a bleedin' shame". Yes - this is in fact word for word.

An avid listener of the station sent me this cool tidbit; In 1981, a bottle-shaped children's book, based on the lyrics of Sting's "Message In A Bottle", is published.

In 1992 we visit the "What were you thinking department" where Billy Idol pleaded no contest to punching a woman in the face. He was fined and told to make public service announcements against alcohol and drug use.

Finally, we end today's' blog with a moment of silence. On this day, April 7th back in 1998, Wendy O Williams, lead singer of The Plasmatics, passed away.

Peace out 'til next time,
Dave

Upcoming Releases, Never Ending Lawsuits, Admitting I'm Old & Other Tidbits You Never Knew!

This will probably be the last blog entry for March... gotta love the ever-changing work schedule! I'm going to delve into some into some different topics today as well as other cool tidbits. We're going to bounce all over the map here, so hang on! You'll also notice that I'm old school... or just old... I still use the term "album"...

First, the future;
- You may or may not know this already, (and ditto with the entries below) but Sarah McLachlan will release, The Laws Of Illusion, her first new studio album in 7 years via Arista Records on June 15th.

- Canadian based punk band D.O.A. has finished their 13th album, Talk - Action = 0, which will be released on May 1st. The album title is a slogan of the bands faithful. Meanwhile, D.O.A. has reissued their classic 1985 album, Let's Wreck The Party, on CD. Many of their other titles have been re-released on CD in recent years. These guys were right up their with the band Fear when it came to album titles. Such titles include Disco Sucks and Greatest Shits.

- Even though this entry does contain some serious alternative music artists, it was also too good a tidbit to pass up!! Slash will release his self-titled solo debut album on Apr. 6th. The release includes guest appearances by Ian Astbury, Chris Cornell, Dave Grohl, Lemmy Kilmeister, Iggy Pop and Ozzy Osbourne. If you don't know all these artists... look 'em up!!

- U2 is accepting pre-orders of their triple-vinyl remix album, Artificial Horizon, from now until May 14th their website. Leave it to U2 to break the mold...


Moving onto the present;
- Eddy Grant has called out the Gorillaz over their hit single "Stylo" and it's similarity to his 1981 song "Time Warp." Grant told AddictMusic, "This is pure piracy, it is an obvious infringement of my song. Anyone who knows 'Time Warp' will know this is 'Time Warp' with people singing and rapping over it [along] with funny little noises. 'Time Warp' is a very popular song and has been a staple of the DJ scene for many years and I feel total disrespect from Gorillaz and their management company."
Grant would go on to say, "I would like the outcome to be that the band admits that they have lifted my song, that I have a full credit for the song and an apology from the band." At this time, he doesn't appear to be seeking any monetary damages. "Time Warp" was the B-side to his "Can't Get Enough" single. What did Fred Flintstone used to say, "... ho boy!"

- I just found this out; thanks to a station fan named Donna. This one is definitely for the "Wow, did you change" department! Martha Davis of The Motels has released her new children's CD, Red Frog Presents 16 Songs For Parents & Children, via iTunes.


And now glancing into the past;
- In honor of The Ramones 1st official gig that they played on March 30th, 1974, we'll look back at two interesting statements;
The 1st one by Chris Stein, guitarist for many years with Blondie... when he saw one of the Ramones fliers on a pole in the Bowery section of Queens, "I thought the group was of a Hispanic nature; because of the band name."
The 2nd was by Dee Dee Ramone himself. He was quoted once "I hated the look of the band... you know, the ripped jeans, t-shirts & leather jackets... HATED it. I always thought I looked like a slob".

Lastly, I was finally able upload a bunch of tunes by Patti Smith to the station. Some of her material is hard to find in an mp3 format. Anyways, in honor of that feat, I'll leave you today with a quote from 1992 by the Queen of Punk herself. Talk about an understatement...
"I always imagined I would write a book, if only a small one, that would carry one away... that I would shine. That I'd be that good. I'd dwell barehanded on a summit turning a wheel that would turn the Earth and undetected, amongst the clouds, I would have some influence; to be of some avail."

Not bad words to live by and thoughts to live for either...
'Til next time,
Peace out,
Dave

Cool Beans, Patti Smith, The Misfits, Hemorroid Cream Commercials... Is This Appropriate For a Sunday?

You know, I'm really groovin' on this four day weekend thing. I've had a chance to add more tracks to the station... everything from alternative standards like Patti Smith to lesser known bands like Jets From Brazil. Judging from emails & feedback, I feel the stations' got a good pulse & mix going here. If there's a song you feel is "missing"... don't worry, it's coming. The uploading & digitizing process can sometimes be a little... cumbersome.

Let's tap into a little history first. We're goin' way back for the first three;

- 1970; Beans is a long way down the road from the Talking Heads. Chris Frantz has been getting a little bored with the bands music. He's been playing with them for over a year in an all-cover band called Beans. He leaves the group & tells his friends he's off to the Rhode Island School of Design... where he'll meet other students like David Bryne & Tina Weymouth.

- 1971; Patti Smith has her first poetry reading at St. Marks Place. She's been in New York for six years and has been making a living (barely) as a writer for magazines such as Creem, Rock Scene & Rolling Stone. One of the poems selected for that evening was entitled "Oath", which begins, "Jesus died for somebodies sins, but not mine." Years later & throughout her career, she would use that sentence as her opening for her groundbreaking single "Gloria", which would also appear on her first album, Horses.

- 1971; David Bowie arrived in the States for his first American tour, in support of his album The Man Who Sold the World. But because he didn't possess a valid work permit, he couldn't play, although he got some publicity anyhow by wearing dresses during public appearances in California and Texas.

- 1982; The Misfits first album Walk Among Us was released. With such tracks as "Nike A Go-Go", "I Turned Into A Martian" and others that the band says is "calculated to chill the blood", it makes for a very interesting listen. By this time, alternative music & especially punk has literally splintered into hundreds of pieces. Between hardcore & underground, new wave, the revitalization of heavy metal, DIY record labels popping up everywhere, and a new cable television channel called MTV, the music industry doesn't know which end is up.

- 2004; Johnny Cash's family shot down a proposal by songwriter Merle Kilgore to license the song "Ring of Fire", recorded by Cash in 1963, for hemorrhoid cream commercials. I'm not kidding! Today, it seems there are a number of commercials that feature popular tunes. It almost seems common-place. However, my stomach still churns at the thought of this concept...

Now... for those of you paying attention, you may be asking, "What the heck does Johnny Cash have to do with alternative and/or punk music?" I'm glad you asked! Believe it or not, Johnny Cash was very influential to many artists over the years, including ones in the rock genre. Iggy Pop, for starters, names him as one of his biggest influences. Not just for his music & song writing ability, but also for his attitude. People didn't call him "the man in black" for nothing.

I received some nice comments & kudos regarding yesterday's blog on why I do what I do. On that same wave length, I'll leave you today with one final thought & quote. It was originally written by George Melly that appeared in a publication back in 1970 called Revolt Into Style... and I quote, "Each successive pop explosion has come roaring out of the clubs in which it was born like an angry young bull. Watching from the other side of the gate, the current establishment has proclaimed it as dangerous, subversive, a menace to youth and demanded that something be done about it..."

Peace out,
Dave