Stream a Haiti benefit album with 20+ L.A. punk-leaning bands cover their local influences.
courtesy of Pitchfork: TV Superchunk's videos are uniformly excellent, but this new "Crossing Wires" vid might be the funniest one of the bunch. Laura's cat is in full-on Sammy Hagar Weekend mode. In fact, you might say she's a felonious monster. HOL-LA! Superchunk's video page Crowding Up Your Visual Field - Superchunk's DVD featuring videos, documentary, commentary from the band and directors, interviews, live footage, and I think there's an easter egg where Jon Wurster leads an aerobics class. I might [...]

Bob Forrest Documentary Premiere Date: Sunday, March 13 Time: 5:30pm - 8:30pm Location: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - South Lamar 1120 South Lamar St, Austin, 78701 Director: Keirda Bahruth If you're in Austin this Sunday, either for the Film Fest or on deck for rock 'n' roll boot camp, you need to get your ass to the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Bob And The Monster is making its official premiere at 5:30, after which Bob Forrest and filmmaker Keirda Bahruth take in a little Q&A. [...]
Sorry about the formatting, it's what was in the box Thelonious Monster/Bob Forrest fans can help fund the new documentary about his life, Bob And The Monster . Filmmaker Keirda Bahruth has spent the last six years chronicling his rise, fall, and rise. Another $1000 and her project covers costs of music rights, archival clearances, sound mix, and Bob's fleet of limo Priuses. He's one of my heroes, surviving at times almost in spite of himself, and has come out the other side to tell us about it. And I'm not [...]

Li'l Cap'n Travis - Teenage Mustache > James Gang - Walk Away "Braces and a teenage mustache Sit beside me in my Mustang We can listen to the James Gang Turn your pretty head and walk away." We'll get to the James Gang in a second, but first some love for Austin's Li'l Cap'n Travis . Jeff Johnston sings only four lines over a rudimentary piano figure, but it brilliantly captures a singular moment of adolescence. My face is breaking out just thinking about it. [...]
Soul Asylum in their prime In 1990, Soul Asylum released my favorite album in their catalog, And The Horse They Rode In On . The band was in their prime, the songwriting was concise, clever, and perceptive, and they destroyed live. I feel lucky that I got to see them twice that year. The first time was in November at the Country Club in Reseda with Thelonious Monster opening (first time seeing both ... epic), and a month later at the Warfield in [...]

Sammy Hagar, cruisin' and boozin' I originally wrote this piece in April 2009 for Star Maker Machine . However, I think it deserves a revisit, in no small part because this really is a Sammy Hagar Weekend. There's the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, the Matador at 21: Lost Weekend in Vegas, and dozens of glorious college football contests going on all over the country. I'm looking at you Alabama-Florida. As we speak, Americans in multiple time zones are guzzling down Hedonism [...]
Thanks to DJ Roky Manson , I've learned that Bob Forrest from Thelonious Monster is hosting an online radio show every Wednesday night from 8-10pm west coast time on Indie1031.com. Yes, that means tonight. And sure, it's not really radio since it's the internet, but it's Bob playing tunes and expounding on an endless variety of topics in the manner of an old-school college radio show. Check out a taste: Incidentally, Roky is offering a full download of Bob's debut show from last week. Get it while you can. [...]

Lena Horne at Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, 1956 This post originally appeared on Star Maker Machine , two weeks before the 2008 presidential election. Given the historical forces at play and SMM's theme that week ( Civics Lessons ), a dip into the Thelonious Monster catalog seemed appropriate. With yesterday's news that Lena Horne passed away at the age of 92, it seemed like a good time to revisit (and reshape) my initial offering. This is especially true given my subsequent move to Los Angeles, [...]

While I finish up my next post, I figured I'd keep you busy with a grab-bag of adiosloungeica. THELONIOUS MONSTER The Monster's set at The Echo (Thursday, February 4) was the beautiful mess I expected. Polished? Yeah, not exactly. Well-rehearsed? Of course not. But, when the boys locked into their groove ... "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and "So What If I Did" ... they reminded me why I keep coming back. Every time I've seen Thelonious play, there's always transcendence amidst the dishevelry. [...]

Thelonious Monster is playing this Thursday, February 4, at the Echo in Los Angeles (click link for info and tickets). This stunning fact gives me the opportunity to wax philosophical about my love for the Monster, especially singer/songwriter, Bob Forrest . First off, as mentioned in the sidebar, "The Adios Lounge" is a song from Thelonious' 1992 album, Beautiful Mess , and features Bob duetting with Tom Freakin Waits . And my choosing a Thelonious Monster song was no accident. They're my favorite band of all-time, taking [...]

Sammy Hagar, cruisin' and definitely boozin' Thelonious Monster - Sammy Hagar Weekend [ purchase ] "Sammy Hagar Weekend" is autobiography, disguised as satire, and wrapped in parody. It's based on Bob Forrest 's experiences at a September 1978 über-concert in Anaheim, California ( "Summer Fest" ), featuring Boston, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and Sammy Hagar. However, it also functions as a satire of the Heavy Metal Parking Lot culture. The parody comes at the end of the [...]

The Bicycle Thief - Rainin (4am) [ buy ] "It's 4 am and I just got home and everybody's asleep So, I just keep listenin' to Irma Thomas sing It's rainin' and rainin' over and over again." The Bicycle Thief was Bob Forrest's first project following the de facto breakup/hiatus of Thelonious Monster and it allowed him to tap into his inner folksinger. From 1999's You Come And Go Like A Pop Song , "Rainin" pays tribute to the great Irma Thomas, the third consecutive Forrest release [...]

Star Maker Machine recently spent a week profiling songs from 1989 . I failed to contribute, despite the fact I had a song picked out, and fought for the theme. What can I say? My jackasseritis flared up. In fact, 1989 had a profound impact on me. That was the year I started DJing at KCSC , Chico State's campus radio station ( see flyer below ), and discovered so much greatness in the vast American rock 'n' roll underground. It was like seeing in color for the first time. Music didn't suck, [...]

Thelonious Monster - My Boy [ purchase ] "One day you and me, boy, we're gonna have it out, yeah, And I know you'll probably hate me, But that's life, boy." We return to the Book of Bob for this week's contribution. Bob Forrest was/is the frontman for Thelonious Monster and he remains the patron saint of The Adios Lounge . "My Boy" is a U-turn in the band's catalog, a mournful piano ballad out of step from their shambolic rock 'n' roll wheelhouse. Bob [...]

Thelonious Monster - Lena Horne Still Sings Stormy Weather [ purchase ] "They tore down Ships just like they tore down Tiny Naylor's, They'll tear down anything in this town, They'll do just about anything to squeeze an extra dime, They'll probably even sell their own grandmothers. Ah but Lena Horne still sings 'Stormy Weather,' Yeah things, they're bad, but they could get better, Yeah things, they're bad, but they could get better, And I'm just waiting to see which way to go. Yeah, I'm just waiting to see which way to go. [...]

Thelonious Monster : Adios Lounge [ purchase ] Joining up with the Star Maker Machine brought more happy surprises than I could count. I was exposed to many bloggers I'd hadn't come across before, every one of them brought something unique to the table. Perhaps the biggest surprise was The Adios Lounge , which for reasons I can't explain hadn't shown up on my radar before. The Adios Lounge gets into the nuts and bolts of tunes, not only as a [...]

Thelonious Monster: Walk On Water [ purchase ] Bob Forrest ( pictured far right ), lead singer and principal songwriter for Thelonious Monster ... and one of the patron saints of The Adios Lounge ... wrote this one over 20 years ago and I'd say it's as relevant now as it was then. Songs about the evil machinations of the music industry are legion, but rarely are the artists themselves held accountable. This is why Bob was one of the best songwriters (and most engaging [...]

We begin this edition of Six Degrees in Miami Beach. Not the actual Miami Beach, mind you, but the Miami Beach of Neil Young's fevered imagination. In 1973, Neil was one year removed from the career-defining behemoth that was Harvest and its feel-good granola anthem, "Heart Of Gold." Problem was, Neil wasn't in a particularly "feel good" frame of mind and sure as hell didn't want his career defined by granola anthems. Reeling with guilt from the November 1972 heroin overdose of his guitarist and friend, Danny Whitten , Neil embarked on [...]
Congratulations to Stephen Heiden of Houston, Texas, for winning the "Medleying With Bo" contest. To review, I created a medley of 30 songs featuring the Bo Diddley Beat and assorted Bo covers. I asked y'all to send in submissions naming both artist and song, with a half-point for each correct answer. At stake was a zip file containing all 12 discs of The Chess Years box set and Mr. Heiden won with an impressive 18 point total. Thanks to everybody for their entries and, as promised, here's a link to the medley and the [...]